Skidding Down Memory Lane
by Del Rion
Summary: During an attack on a HYDRA base, Tony gets knocked out by a blast – and loses his memory. While the Avengers struggle to bring their teammate back to the present, HYDRA seems very intent on getting their hands on Tony. (Part of "Genius, AI & Bots" series. Written for Marvel Bang 2019.)


**Story Info**

**Title:** Skidding Down Memory Lane

**Author:** Del Rion

**Fandom:** The Avengers & Iron Man (MCU)

**Timeline:** Between "Captain America: Winter Soldier" and "Avengers: Age of Ultron"

**Genre:** Drama

**Rating:** M / FRM

**Characters:** Bruce Banner (Hulk), Clint Barton (Hawkeye), J.A.R.V.I.S., Pepper Potts, James "Rhodey" Rhodes (War Machine), Steve Rogers (Captain America), Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow), Tony Stark (Iron Man), Thor, Tony's bots (DUM-E & U).

**Pairing:** Pepper/Tony

**Summary:** During an attack on a HYDRA base, Tony gets knocked out by a blast – and loses his memory. While the Avengers struggle to bring their teammate back to the present, HYDRA seems very intent on getting their hands on Tony.  
Complete. Part of "Genius, AI & Bots" series.

**Written for:** _Marvel Bang_ in 2019.  
Inspired by a prompt on _avengerkink_ (LJ): **[GEN] Tony's great memory loss.**  
Also fills a prompt on my table (sci-fi, MCU/Tony Stark) at _fc-smorgasbord_ (square: lost).

**Warnings:** Canonical violence, head injury, amnesia, language.

**Disclaimer:** Iron Man, Avengers, and Marvel Cinematic Universe, including characters and everything else, belong to Marvel, Marvel Studios, Jon Favreau, Shane Black, Joss Whedon, Louis Leterrier, Kenneth Branagh, Joe Johnston, Anthony & Joe Russo, Alan Taylor, Paramount Pictures, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, and Universal Pictures. In short: I own nothing; this is pure fiction created to entertain likeminded fans for no profit whatsoever.

**Beta:** Mythra (mythras-fire)

**Feedback:** Much appreciated, as always!

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**About ****_Skidding Down Memory Lane_****:** Inspired by the following prompt by an anonymous prompter:  
_Tony receives a serious blow to the head during a battle with the enemy and it's resulted in him having amnesia. Now the team must deal with trying to essentially teach Tony how to be Tony again as he's forgotten much of his skills and what Iron Man is. He doesn't know his girlfriend Pepper or any of the Avengers, which leads him to having serious trust issues with all. Not to mention he's quite frightened of the voice within the Tower known as Jarvis. So how can Tony Stark be Tony Stark when he's now the complete opposite of such a character. And it doesn't help when the bad guys try to capture Tony._

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**Story and status:** Below you see the writing process of the story. If there is no text after the title, then it is finished and checked. Possible updates shall be marked after the title.

**Skidding Down Memory Lane**

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. . .

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**Skidding Down Memory Lane**

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There was no place for the word 'routine' when it came to Avengers' missions; they hadn't been working together long enough to establish that, and their roster wasn't the same for every occasion. They made it work, though, because there was no other option.

When all else failed, they pushed through with sheer determination.

That, and superhuman power levels; crushing the opposition with the respective strengths of their enhanced teammates worked pretty well as a last resort.

Not that it got nearly that bad most of the time, because busting up HYDRA bases wasn't the same as defending a city of millions against an alien attack. Tony, at least, had a clear idea of what the real threats were like, but that didn't mean the smaller fish didn't need to be dealt with all the same, especially when they posed an acute threat to the world.

After the events in Washington D.C. – Insight Helicarriers raining down from the sky moments before they managed to kill a few hundred thousand people – and the debacle of S.H.I.E.L.D. being compromised by HYDRA, the Avengers had had their hands full.

HYDRA's exposure had changed their priorities, and after the day Tony handed Cap's shield back to him, freshly cleaned and polished since being dug up from the bottom of the Potomac River by Iron Man, the game was on. They were focused, tracking down leads and taking out bases left and right.

To add insult to injury, they had found out that after S.H.I.E.L.D.'s collapse, some of the HYDRA officials had made off with technology and artifacts that certainly didn't belong in their hands – including the staff Loki had been using. Thor had once agreed to give it to S.H.I.E.L.D. for safekeeping when he took Loki and the Tesseract back to Asgard, and none of them wanted it to remain in the hands of HYDRA for any longer than it took to track it down.

Steve had brought in a new ally in Sam Wilson, aka Falcon, and even though he hadn't been made into an official Avenger yet, he did partake in a lightweight mission here and there, getting into the groove of things. After Tony did some work on his wings, he was a nice addition to their flying force, even though he wasn't armored like Iron Man or carrying around a magical hammer. For the most part he opted out of the action, though, and Steve had him running some covert errands Tony hadn't concerned himself with just yet.

He had too much on his plate to focus on the private goings-on of his teammates.

As they proceeded to track down HYDRA bases, it was often like following a trail of cookie crumbs; they could usually find something in the base they were raiding that would lead them to one or two others. Unfortunately, HYDRA members were smartening up and kept trying to dump their data before the Avengers could get a hold of it. That was a last resort tactic, of course, but they were doing it more and more, which made locating other bases harder.

That forced them to rethink their strategy; going in with more stealth and an element of surprise was becoming a key feature, though not always easy to realize, depending on the location and the level of fortification they faced.

It certainly annoyed Tony because he was often needed to extract data and his suit wasn't stealthy enough to pass undetected. Sure, Natasha could get the job done, but sometimes it was necessary for Tony to be there because one of them specialized in tech and the other… well, whatever her true specialty was.

So, when flying over yet another secret supervillain base, this one a decommissioned metal processing plant, Tony checked out the readings and knew they were low on time; their arrival had been noticed due to a severe local storm forcing them to drop down from the clouds prematurely. Despite the weather being quite unwelcoming, the HYDRA agents had their eyes peeled – or their warning sensors at the very least – and by the time the Avengers were within striking distance, the base was already undergoing a flurry of movement.

It was only a matter of time before they decided to get rid of any incriminating evidence.

"J.A.R.V.I.S., track down landlines and proceed for a clean cut. Jam all wireless frequencies except our own," Tony instructed, eyes scanning the visuals in front of him.

_"Yes, sir,"_ the AI replied promptly, part of the heads-up display lighting up with dedicated processes working to that end. Tony glimpsed at it and then looked away. It was just a twitch of an eye, really, but it signaled J.A.R.V.I.S. to shrink down that portion of the data until there was something to report. Tony had more important things to focus on, presently, like preparing for enemy fire.

_"They seem a bit jumpy,"_ Clint commented over the comm. He was seeking high ground on a hilltop, halting his progress to get a better look at the plant. He was loving the new eyewear Tony had given him to test out, sunglass-shaped and full of functions that replaced binoculars and thermal cameras – and apparently worked just as well to view _LOL Cats_ videos on YouTube if their inbound flight was anything to go by.

_"We need to get inside_ now _if we wish to extract anything useful,"_ Natasha said, sounding a bit breathless.

"You're moving too slowly," Tony commented. They were making good time on foot, but they would soon reach the open area around the plant complex, and Tony didn't think for a second that the weapons he had already spotted were the only traps lying in wait. "Need a lift?" he asked, seeing as that was what a good teammate would offer.

_"They know our routine by now,"_ Steve complained, ahead of the others, shield at the ready. He would most likely breach the defenses, draw their fire, and make a hole for the others. If it got really hairy, Bruce would have to get angry, but so far they were moving in without him.

Above, thunder mixed with the already roaring winds and rain, and Tony was yet again glad to be isolated within his suit, cut off from the elements. Although, the occasional gust was forcing him to adjust his flight stabilizers more than usual and visibility was poor, so he couldn't really count on his eyesight. Not that that was a big thing in the suit to begin with, so it wasn't really a problem.

"Should we mix it up?" Tony asked, referring to Cap's earlier statement. The walking-talking WWII relic wasn't wrong: even while their plans evolved with the location and situation, not to mention the day's line-up, the Avengers did like to use tried and true maneuvers. One of them was Natasha slipping inside to get intel before the place got too wrecked, but all too often she had been caught in the act and ended up needing an extraction, much to her annoyance.

_"We could send Thor in first,"_ Clint mused, a joke evident in his voice. Obviously he meant 'send him in the building', and Tony tried not to roll his eyes, imagining the God of Thunder frying all the devices in his vicinity, doing HYDRA's job for them.

_"Stay focused,"_ Cap snapped, clearly not appreciating the useless suggestion. He had reached the tree line and stopped, surveying the couple hundred yards of open land between him and the base's reinforced gates.

_"I shall go ahead if you wish,"_ Thor boomed into the comms, the line crackling with static. More often than not they lost their connection to him at some point of the battle, either to a malfunction in the earpiece or because it simply got dislodged. One day, Tony was going to figure it out – same as for the Hulk.

Whether Big Green listened with or without an earpiece was another story.

_"Land lines detected and painted,"_ J.A.R.V.I.S. informed Tony, highlighting them on the HUD for him as he looked at the ground. Tony selected a few missiles and sent them off, watching as they took flight and then descended, hitting their targets some seconds later.

_"Land lines successfully destroyed. Other communicators blocked within a five mile radius,"_ the AI told him.

That was good, but it might also prompt the HYDRA goons to destroy the data since they couldn't transfer it. "How's the new satellite operating?" Tony asked.

_"Optimal response,"_ J.A.R.V.I.S. replied. _"The weather conditions are, however, causing minor issues."_

"That's to be expected, I suppose," Tony sighed. Still, it was nice having a couple dedicated satellites just for operations like these. And seeing as J.A.R.V.I.S. was going to be in charge of them, he didn't need to spend hours on a sophisticated operating system and how to translate the data to a usable format for the entire team.

The first of the perimeter weapons began to fire, beams of light from energy weapons as well are large caliber guns cutting through the air. Tony could see them coming from far away, shifting his flight pattern accordingly and shooting down the few projectiles he was too lazy to avoid. He could almost feel J.A.R.V.I.S. judging him for that, which probably meant he was judging himself.

Not liking that, he targeted a few of the guns and sent a couple missiles their way, watching them blow up and take down a wall with them, creating a better chance for the others to enter the facility perimeter.

"Let's eavesdrop," Tony decided as he continued in a large circle around the plant, selecting a tiny drone the size of a golf ball. The suit spat it out and the machine then used its own boosters to jet down to the part of the main building where Tony could detect both people and heat residue from machines. The drone landed on the building, cut a hole in a window pane, then entered, crawling along the wall, relaying video and audio from its surroundings.

Tony tuned out the team while he listened to the HYDRA agents arguing for the best line of action. A lot of them were ready to abandon ship, knowing what was coming next.

"We need to speed this up, now," Tony told the team. "They're minutes away from blowing up the plant – and the data with it – leaving their base like rats from a sinking ship."

_"They're already giving up?"_ Clint asked dramatically. _"But we haven't even gotten to kick any asses yet!"_

_"Better run faster, then,"_ Natasha told him, though none of the Avengers on foot had yet braved the exposed stretch of land.

_"Thor, take out the big guns,"_ Steve ordered, shield in hand as he waited for Natasha and Clint to catch up; most likely he was entertaining the option of approaching single file, his shield taking the heat, but protecting two others behind his own frame was going to be difficult. _"Tony, can you secure the data?"_ he asked then. Tony saw him glance up to the sky.

"Absolutely," Tony agreed. "I could give Thor a hand first," he offered.

_"Hawkeye can do that,"_ Steve argued.

_"I could use a ride to that nice, tall lighting structure in the middle of the yard if that's not too much trouble,"_ Clint requested. Tony could see how that would be a nice vantage point for him to secure the team's breach, with a 360º view of the surrounding area.

"On it," Tony replied, looping around to go pick him up. Clint grunted when Tony grabbed him, this being his least favorite part, and the rain beating down on his face couldn't be helping.

A couple turrets turned their way, the HUD flaring up with an advance warning, but just as Tony was staring to react, a bolt of lightning shot down from the sky, blowing the weapons to pieces. Thor descended behind the flash of light, still hundreds of feet above the plant, managing to look surprisingly god-like despite the rain and wind. How his cape never seemed to get drenched was a mystery.

Tony arched over to the light mast, waiting for Clint to clip himself into it by a harness he was wearing. Once the other was ready, hands free to reach for his bow after a quick thumbs-up, Tony flew away and made another scan of the building with the computers, trying to determine where he should hit it from.

His eavesdropping drone was still recording, and Tony reminded himself to brush up on his German and Slavic languages that seemed to dominate HYDRA ranks. Yes, they spoke a lot of English, too, being an international group, but if they were smart they would stick to other languages – or make their own code.

If Tony were to ever become an evil mastermind, that would be among the first things he'd do. Coded messages and all that, much harder for his enemies to know what he was planning.

_"Your window is closing, sir,"_ J.A.R.V.I.S. prompted him. The AI knew what the mission was, and deciding he might as well go for it, Tony made a sharp turn and smashed through a literal window. The room beyond it was not very large, and he barely managed to halt in time before crashing into the opposite wall. While glass and rubble rained down below him, HYDRA agents scurried in all directions. Surprisingly, many of them were raising their weapons towards him, though, despite their misgivings about the battle.

Really, Tony didn't envy them. If he had to battle the Avengers with inferior weaponry and leadership, he might have also considered abandoning ship well before risking his own neck.

The armor deflected the shots, the HUD displaying impact sites and reporting no breaches as of yet. Tony moved an arm and fired back in rapid succession, gunning down the opposition. The HYDRA agents backed away, knowing when they were beat, eventually leaving Tony alone in the room with the computers and a few bodies.

Landing on the floor, Tony surveyed the area, then walked over to the only door in or out of the room and shoved a heavy filing cabinet in front of it, then commanded the suit to open.

The smoke burned his eyes the moment he stepped out, prompting him to cough. Behind him, the suit sealed up again, surveying the room.

Tony approached the computers, pulling out his phone and toying with it while he searched for the best place to start; if he took these few extra seconds now, it would make him a lot more efficient.

_"Sir, the HYDRA agents are moving outside the door,"_ J.A.R.V.I.S. notified him through the earpiece, although he could have used the armor's speakers to the same end.

"Are they trying to breach?" Tony asked, forcing himself not to look at the door as he stepped up to one computer and hovered his fingers above the keyboard for a second before beginning to type, trying to halt the deletion of files and transfer it all to his phone.

_"It doesn't seem like it,"_ the AI responded.

"Well, until they do, keep an eye on them," Tony ordered. "How are we doing on the outside?" he asked, knowing J.A.R.V.I.S. could multitask, from here and from the orbiting satellite in space.

_"All the Avengers have breached the plant grounds – save for Dr. Banner, of course, who still remains at the Quinjet."_

"He's calm, right?" Tony asked. "You can tell him we most likely won't need him." A few more minutes and he would have the data flowing in the direction he wanted. He could hear thunder roaring outside, as well as gunfire and an occasional shout and scream. There were also noises coming from the other side of the blocked door, and he briefly glanced at it, wondering if HYDRA thought they could barricade the door from the other side and lock him in the room; seeing as there was already an Iron Man-sized hole in the wall where the window had been, letting in the rain and wind, it was hardly a worthy effort.

His eyes moved back to the task at hand. The data was still encrypted and being torn apart by a HYDRA sub-program, so he worked to freeze everything in place in order to buy himself a bit more time to work around the deletion. It would slow down his extraction, but he would rather take the minute than stare for days at data that looked like it had gone through a digital shredder.

When he finally managed to halt the process, there was a partial file open on the screen. He could only see a corner of an image embedded in it, but the blueish glow of Loki's scepter was unmistakable. "Finally," he muttered, trying to see what else was contained in that file. The name 'Strucker' stood out multiple times, as well as the word 'experimentation', which always had a nasty echo to it when paired with a HYDRA scientist.

Grabbing his phone, Tony set to work, knowing they had finally discovered the missing piece. He could not lose this one.

_"Sir,"_ J.A.R.V.I.S. piped up.

"Not now," Tony told him. "I'm busy."

_"Sir, they are setting charges –"_

The AI never got to finish: the door Tony had blocked with the filing cabinet blew inwards, along with the entire wall surrounding it. The room and everything in it was put in motion, Tony's brain registering intense heat, pressure, and then very little else.

* * *

When an entire corner of the plant blew up, Clint stopped firing, pushing himself to the right side of the light mast to see what was going on. Barely five minutes had passed since Iron Man breached that very area, and he had given no warning to the team of blowing it up.

"Did he extract the files?" Clint mused, raising one hand to fiddle with the settings of his new glasses, to take a closer look at the destruction.

_"If he did, that was damn fast,"_ Natasha replied, words stuttering slightly as she took down three men around her, then sprang to the side to avoid being shot by a fourth.

_"Stark, come in,"_ Steve called out through the comms, putting two and two together.

From the smoke, fire, and raining debris, the Iron Man armor plowed through. However, it didn't fly with its usual grace, more like diving through the destruction and landing on the wet ground fifty yards away. Clint could see the armor's arms were holding onto something rather than being used for flight maneuvers.

_"Stark,"_ Steve called out again, voice taut. The next HYDRA goon who happened to cross his path was swatted aside like a fly while the super-soldier waited for confirmation.

_"Mr. Stark is down,"_ J.A.R.V.I.S. announced, and Clint could admit he felt cold sweat on his skin. Tony didn't mind blowing stuff up, and he was smart enough not to get caught in it – which meant this was HYDRA.

_"What does he mean, 'down'?"_ Bruce's voice rang shrill in the comms; he tended to just listen, monitoring from a safe distance, occasionally asking whether they needed him – or, rather, the Hulk – so his inclusion in the conversation threw everyone off for a second.

_"The enemy piled up explosives outside the computer room,"_ J.A.R.V.I.S. clarified, sounding… shaken, if that was possible. _"I should have seen it – analyzed the materials."_

_"How bad is it?"_ Steve asked, already making his way towards where the armor had landed. It had moved now, and Clint could see it carefully setting Tony's body on the wet ground, checking him over.

_"Concussion and some burns, minor smoke inhalation,"_ the AI reported. _"I managed to shield him from most of the blast."_

Clint grit his teeth. He looked at the smoking ruins of the room, deciding that the data could wait – if there was any of it left. Probably not.

Such a setback had never stopped the Avengers from smoking out another HYDRA base, so Clint didn't worry about it too much.

"Thor, can you help Nat out?" he asked, already securing his bow on his back and looking at options to get himself down. He could zip down most of the distance with the wire attached to his harness, then climb down the rest of the way. He would be vulnerable, but hopefully they had pushed the enemy back far enough that they wouldn't dare seize the opening the explosion had just created.

Without reply, lightning smashed down to the ground, driving back the last of the enemy forces, Thor descending behind the blindingly hot blast. The entire light mast swung with the force of it, and Clint could see Natasha steadying herself, then advancing again.

Steve was making a beeline for Tony, and Clint began his own descent, swiftly zipping down until the cable was maxed out. He released it and let it retract to his belt, then began the more physically demanding task of climbing down. Of course he could have re-attached the cable somewhere else, but he was close enough to the ground that he would rather spend that time climbing.

Thor and Natasha were driving off the last of the HYDRA resistance, giving Clint the freedom to focus on where he was placing his hands and feet, until he finally dared to just let go and drop down. He almost slipped on the wet concrete, but caught himself at the last moment. "I'm getting too old for this," he muttered, then checked his surroundings and took off after Steve, who had already reached Tony and the armor.

_"What's happening, guys?"_ Bruce asked over the comms.

_"He's alive,"_ Steve replied.

_"Probably not the kind of answer he was looking for,"_ Natasha warned; no one wanted to amp up Bruce's anxiousness levels.

_"Mr. Stark's breathing is normal, and in general his vitals are within acceptable levels. No major bleeding, internal or otherwise; just a few scrapes from debris. He is, however, still unresponsive,"_ J.A.R.V.I.S. broke it down.

_"We should get him to the Quinjet,"_ Bruce said without even knowing what the situation was.

_"I agree,"_ Steve stated. _"He either got what we came for, or the data has been blown to bits. HYDRA is running, and we can't risk Stark getting caught in the crossfire while down for the count."_

Clint finally reached them, noting that Tony didn't really look worse for wear. Smoke and debris had smeared his skin and clothes, and there were a few small cuts here and there, but other than that he looked okay. Concussions could be tricky, though, as Clint knew from past experience.

"Should we move him?" Clint asked, glancing around to check they were going undetected by the HYDRA goons. Apparently they had chosen to leave their base to the Avengers – not that they had much interest in it at the very moment. Their team came first.

Natasha and Thor joined them before Steve could decide their next plan of action. The armor looked like it was still scanning for injuries the human eye could not detect.

"Did Tony get the data?" Natasha asked, mind still in the mission.

_"I'm afraid not. Mr. Stark was still working on stopping the deletion of the documents when the explosion took place,"_ J.A.R.V.I.S. replied through the suit's speakers.

Natasha looked out towards the smoking ruins of the corner of the building that was slowly collapsing under its own weight. "We could check for another computer room," she mused. Just as she said it, a second explosion took place inside the building, a fire spreading to another part of it.

"Leave it," Steve decided. "We'll catch up to them again." He glanced at the armor. "J.A.R.V.I.S., can we safely move him?"

_"By my estimation, yes. There is no spinal damage that the armor's diagnostics can detect, and the cranial swelling is minimal."_

Without further encouragement, Thor put his mighty hammer on his belt and stepped forward, kneeling down. Steve moved back, releasing his shield from his back, clearly assuming guard duty. Thor lifted Tony up with ease, and the rest of them fanned out to a safe distance, beginning the trek back to the Quinjet. They could have had Bruce fly the aircraft over to them, but in case any HYDRA outposts were still manned, it was a risk better not taken. It would be a very long walk back to their base of operations in New York.

They made it back to the Quinjet without incident, no members of HYDRA attempting to take a cheap shot at them. Steve looked like he might have welcomed it, just to have an excuse to lash out, and Natasha still looked like she wanted to go back for the intel they had missed out on.

Clint decided to be happy that none of them had died, and that Tony's injuries were not serious; he was just taking his time waking up. They always joked about the injuries they had sustained, but it was only a matter of time before one of them took a serious hit.

Bruce met them fifty yards outside the Quinjet, looking anxious. "Has he shown any signs of waking up?" he asked, coming over, taking a swift look at Tony where he lay in Thor's arms.

"Nay," Thor replied.

_"Nor have any of his vital signs weakened,"_ J.A.R.V.I.S. added via the suit.

"Get him inside," Bruce said needlessly, following Thor into the Quinjet, almost jogging to keep up.

"Do you want us to take off immediately?" Clint asked, putting his bow away.

"Give me a moment to check Tony over," Bruce replied.

Clint nodded, moving to the nose of the aircraft to prepare it for take-off while Bruce did his thing. The soft hum of the engines firing up made the plane faintly vibrate, and Clint glanced back to see how they were doing.

Tony was lying on a medical table in the middle of the Quinjet, Bruce running some scans. Clint wondered if it was something Tony's armor hadn't already done – or if Bruce just wanted to make sure there was nothing they had missed, like a nasty bit of internal bleeding.

Natasha closed the ramp of the Quinjet, keeping an eye out for any enemy movement outside. The radar and other surveillance detectors told Clint there was none, but he still kept a sharp eye on the instruments until Bruce cleared him for take-off. Clint did it as smoothly as possible, though their ride through the storm clouds was bumpy. Nothing the aircraft couldn't handle, of course, and once they pushed through, it was much smoother sailing.

They were a couple minutes into their journey when Clint heard Tony groan, and he glanced back to see what was going on. Tony was shifting on the table, hands moving up to his head.

"Tony?" Bruce called out. "How are you feeling?"

"Ugh, my head," came a strained reply, his right leg sliding up, sole stabilizing him against the table.

Clint punched in the coordinates for the base. "J.A.R.V.I.S., can you handle it?" he asked in a low voice.

_"I shall inform you if pilot input is needed,"_ the AI said.

In general, Clint didn't like a machine controlling any moving vehicle he was in, but he also wanted to be back there with the team, and he knew Tony's AI was more than capable of handling the plane. He could let it slide this once…

Getting up from his seat, Clint moved to join the others, just as Tony blinked and squinted. Bruce took the opportunity to shine a light into his eyes, which wasn't well-received.

"I want to check your pupillary response," Bruce insisted.

Tony didn't seem to want to cooperate, scooting back on the table, sitting up. He seemed to catch himself just in time, realizing there was a drop of a few feet on all sides.

"Headache?" Clint asked, knowing how these things went.

Tony made a sound which wasn't a clear affirmative, still staring at them. He looked a bit out of it, to be honest.

"Maybe you should lie back down," Steve seemed to be thinking along the same lines.

Tony let out a nervous chuckle, though he didn't seem amused. It was hard to guess what was going through his head. "Must have been some party," he muttered, almost to himself, then looked around. A frown appeared on his face as he checked the interior of the plane, and Clint could see his body tense up. Was he in pain?

"Maybe we should knock him out for the duration of the flight," he whispered to Bruce.

"Where am I?" Tony asked, then looked at them with newfound alarm. It seemed misplaced, all things considered, and the Avengers exchanged looks as if trying to figure out the answer Tony wanted for that question.

_"The Quinjet, sir,"_ J.A.R.V.I.S. replied helpfully through the speakers of the armor.

Tony's eyes followed the sound and he almost fell off the table all over again. It was easy to hear his breathing picking up, and Clint would have bet his month's salary that his blood pressure was going through the roof.

For a long five seconds, Tony stared at his armor, then shook himself and looked at the rest of them. His eyes definitely lingered on Thor, who was standing very still, frowning in confusion, and then he finally landed on Steve.

"One hell of a party," Tony said again, then swung his feet off the table, stumbling a bit as he slid off it on the far side, keeping the table between himself and the rest of the team. "I'm loving the Captain America vibe, though your take on the costume is quite futuristic compared to the real thing," he said, motioning at Steve. He was definitely nervous. "I, uh… Need to go home."

"We're going home," Bruce offered, stepping forward a bit. Tony tensed on his side of the table, though Bruce probably looked the least threatening of them all, so Tony let him approach another step before backing up himself.

"Look, I'm not sure how I ended up here, but I'll just call my ride if you can point me to a phone. Must have partied hard last night. It happens." He flashed a grin at Natasha – who raised an eyebrow. Even Clint could tell the grin was forced, some kind of a defense mechanism to throw people off. It might have worked on the Average Joe, but they were spies and people with rather unique skills; Tony's routine wasn't fooling anyone.

"Tony, maybe you should sit down," Bruce tried again.

"I'm fine," Tony said. "Maybe got a little extra in my drink, but I'm…" His eyes darted towards the armor again. His neck was clammy with sweat.

"Do you know who we are?" Steve asked, voice softer than usual, as if he was trying very hard to appear non-threatening.

Tony waved his hand as if that was not important – very pointedly not answering the question.

The Quinjet jumped slightly in the air, and Tony's head darted around in obvious confusion. Then he saw the cockpit window, and his entire body stilled as if he were trying very hard to solve some kind of a riddle.

"This is an airplane?" he asked in a wavering voice. It wasn't pretend: Clint could detect a faint edge of panic.

"Yeah. Neat, right?" Clint said. "You built it," he added.

Tony whirled to look at him, almost losing his balance, then backed himself into a wall, watching them all with open suspicion. "I think I want to call my Dad now," he said, voice taut.

Sure, there had been clues all this time, but that was a red flag.

Once again the Avengers shared a look, but before anyone could reply, Tony's expression grew a bit vacant, as if he was engaged in an inner conversation none of them were privy to. It wasn't a pleasant conversation, either, because his anxiety seemed to peak again, followed by desperation.

"They're… dead," Tony whispered, then slid down the length of the wall until he was seated on the floor.

"Yes, they are," Bruce said, uncertainty in his voice. "I'm sorry," he added, because that was the appropriate thing to say.

"What's the last thing you remember?" Natasha asked, slowly moving in front of Tony, crouching down a safe distance from him.

Tony glanced at her, not trying the charming grin this time. He just looked lost. For a moment he opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again, but the answer seemed to elude him. "I'm not sure," he finally confessed, which wasn't the answer anyone liked. "There are… glimpses. They're dead, right? My parents? But I also remember them, so vividly…"

"I'm guessing you don't remember any of us," Clint mused.

Tony looked at them, obviously trying to deduce which answer would keep him the safest. Clint imagined that if he had a huge gap in his memory, he might fall back on lessons he had been told all his life, just like any other rich kid: people always wanted to exploit you, and there was a considerable threat of kidnapping for ransom. If Tony found himself in a space surrounded by strangers, he might not be willing to show all his cards.

"He has no memory of us?" Thor guessed.

"It might come back," Bruce said hopefully. "He hit his head. There is some swelling…"

_"You should lie down, sir. It will take us an hour before we reach the Tower,"_ J.A.R.V.I.S. said, still communicating through the armor. Clint guessed that an incorporeal voice speaking from the airplane itself might have been a bit too much.

Tony, understandably, didn't seem comfortable with that. He climbed back to his feet, taking another look out the cockpit windows, then began to move along the plane's interior while keeping a safe distance between himself and the Avengers. Respecting it, the Avengers moved away from him as he proceeded, though all of them seemed ready to move if Tony would, say, go for the emergency hatch. Not that he probably knew one existed, but no one was taking any chances.

During his search, Tony happened upon a mirror in the area that served as the 'locker room' for half the team. It made him halt his progress and move towards it, reaching out to touch the glass, clearly not in tune with the reflection it showed. The way his other hand moved to touch his beard was a simple enough indication that in his mind, Tony had lost several years of his life.

"How long do you think it will be before he snaps back?" Clint moved to ask Bruce.

"Is there anything we can do to assist?" Thor chimed in.

"Let's just wait until we get back to the Tower," Bruce said. He was looking nervous and tense all at once, but there was no hint of green.

"We could always try a manual reset," Clint joked at Natasha.

"No one is hitting him on the head!" Bruce snapped, then slowly approached Tony. "Do you have anything else you remember for sure?" he asked. "To help us figure out where your memory cuts off."

Tony looked at him, then back at his reflection. He still seemed very conflicted about what he saw. Obviously he was older than what he had expected, though if he couldn't definitely remember where his memory went blank, maybe it was hard for him to decide what exactly he was waiting to see in the mirror. Certainly not what was looking back at him from the reflective surface.

"My parents… New York. I went to MIT, but I think I've graduated… I remember J.A.R.V.I.S. being there," he concluded, though it didn't make sense because he seemed very disturbed by his armor and the voice coming from it. "And Rhodey," he added then, sounding certain.

"James Rhodes?" Steve confirmed.

"Yeah," Tony nodded. "You know him?"

"We've met," Bruce replied. "This is good. Maybe come sit down, have a little bit to drink, and we can try to find more clues to trigger your memory," he offered.

Finally Tony acquiesced to do as he was asked, though he only picked up the offered cup of water after it had sat on the edge of the table for a bit. Perhaps he feared it might be poisoned, or at the very least spiked. Clint fully expected that someone had slipped a sedative in it, but apparently not, because Tony remained alert.

Tony kept looking at the interior of the Quinjet as if trying to fathom how such a thing existed. He also looked at the Avengers, his attention mostly resting on the armor and Steve. Finally, he couldn't help himself: "You really look like him," he said to Steve.

"Who?" Steve asked.

"Steve Rogers," Tony said quietly. "Just like in my Dad's old photos – and Aunt Peggy's."

Steve's jaw shifted and he looked at the team, as if trying to figure out how to break the news to Tony that he was the real deal. "I'm him," he finally said, surprising Clint who had assumed he might hold onto that truth until Tony was a bit less overwhelmed by everything.

Tony puzzled over that, not bursting out with a litany of questions. His gaze seemed to evaluate Steve, comparing him to his statement, obviously trying to verify whether it might be the truth – or if he was being lied to by an oddly dressed imposter, as he had at first assumed.

"Did he find you?" Tony finally asked. "My Dad."

"No," Steve said, looking appropriately remorseful.

"He's looking for you…" Tony murmured, almost to himself.

"I know," Steve stated. "S.H.I.E.L.D. found me." The word didn't seem to ring any bells.

"Do you remember Pepper?" Natasha asked then.

Tony shook his head, frowning.

"What about Happy Hogan?" she pressed.

"No," Tony replied. "I don't think so. Should I?" Apparently he was starting to catch on that there were huge chunks of his life missing. Clint could only imagine how it felt, and knowing how fast Tony's mind usually worked, who knew how soon he would be over-analyzing every question they gave him, assuming it was yet another thing he didn't remember – and for which he would have to find meaning.

"I'll call Rhodey, see if he can meet us at the Tower," Natasha said in a low voice to Steve, moving away.

Tony swung his feet, sitting on the edge of the medical table, once again looking around at the plane and the people in it – as well as the armor. He seemed to have become deceptively calm about the whole thing, and as Clint decided to return to the cockpit and resume his piloting duties, he wondered how much that tranquility would be upset when Tony saw where he currently lived.

* * *

Tony didn't even realize it when the plane landed: he kept expecting someone to tell him to take a seat and buckle up, but save for some minor turbulence as they descended and a few last-minute turns, none of that happened.

Being a Stark, he had flown plenty in his life, but this was different.

All of it was different.

Problem was, Tony had a very hard time drawing a line between the things he knew for sure, and things he apparently had forgotten. The montage of his life wasn't just snipped from a specific spot in his head like a roll of film. Instead, flashes and facts swam around in his head, going in and out of focus. Like, one moment he would expect to see his parents soon, and the next he would remember he would never get to see them again.

He didn't remember the people who surrounded him. The aircraft was something out of a _Star Trek_ movie, only better. His own face was unfamiliar to him, and for a bit he wondered if his consciousness was trapped in the wrong body. Sure, there were familiarities, but the experience of seeing himself in the mirror had thrown him off in a big way.

After the plane had settled, a ramp opened in the back and everyone began to move out. Tony got to his feet, his head still aching – as well as several other parts of his body. The clothes he was wearing were strange, almost like a diving suit but from a very different material which he couldn't identify. At least they were comfortable, and pleasantly warm despite the thinness of the fabric.

He followed the others, cautiously taking a look around. Just as his eyes began to take in the building they were in – how had they landed _in a building_?! – he also noticed an African-American man standing alone in the open space.

"Tony?" the man called out to him.

Tony stopped and hesitated. There was something familiar about him, his voice maybe?

"Damn, Tone," the man said, and yeah, it definitely rang the bell: this was Rhodey. Only, Rhodey didn't look like the Rhodey Tony thought he remembered – not the youngster he remembered from MIT, or the young man starting his air force career. "They said you might not remember a lot, but you should see your face…"

The man – Rhodey – moved forward, approaching him with comfort. He knew Tony. Tony was supposed to know him. They were friends.

Just then, the human-shaped robot thing started walking down the ramp of the aircraft they had exited, and Tony swiveled around to watch it progress. Its movements were elegant, though heavy and a bit stiff. He had never seen a humanoid machine move like that – certainly not one of this size. The way it remained upright, its body perfectly proportioned and balanced, range of motions incredibly lifelike. Then it looked at him, glowing eyes and all, and stopped as if to react to him watching it.

"Jarvis, please take the armor to the shop, okay?" the guy with the glasses, Bruce, requested. He was different from the rest of the crew, and Tony liked him better, too. He talked science, was nervous, and spoke to Tony as if they knew each other well. The rest of them were less an open book, and as long as Tony felt this off-balance, he would prefer someone who might not be trying to play him.

_"Very well, Doctor Banner,"_ the voice from the robot replied, and it continued walking across the space. There was something familiar about the voice, the British lilt. Tony knew exactly what he was comparing it to, but he was terrified to dig too far. His parents were dead, and he was a lot older than he felt, if that made sense. Who knew where Jarvis was?

It puzzled him, however, how he had heard these people address the machine with their family butler's name. He would have to figure it out.

"Tony, Banner wants to do a check-up on you, to make sure you're not injured," Rhodey said.

"I feel fine," Tony said, glancing at the man who was supposed to be his best friend, then looked at the walls around them. It was all glass by the looks of it, most of it see-through. He could see the floor above them, which held furniture he associated with a living room space.

"Just humor him," Rhodey begged. "Come on," he reached out, touching Tony's arm, and reflexively Tony jerked back, taking a step away from the other. Rhodey froze, then slowly raised his hands. "Sorry," he said. "Just come this way, please."

Tony wasn't sure he had a choice, and Bruce had said he had hurt himself. The others were being kind of mum about when and where – and why – such a thing had occurred.

They set out through the futuristic space, stepping into an elevator that ran so smoothly and quietly, not to mention quickly, that Tony had to pinch himself to make sure he wasn't asleep after all.

He felt pain, and didn't jerk awake in his bed, so he supposed he was stuck in this weird nightmare.

* * *

Bruce felt anxious, but knew he had to rein it in for Tony's sake: the other man was obviously confused, and Bruce's nervousness wouldn't help Tony come to grips with what had happened.

Rhodey took Tony to the infirmary, which didn't look like a conventional hospital space, but with what Tony did or didn't remember at the moment, this was all probably strange to him. Judging by his expression, he wasn't feeling at ease with Rhodey, either, and Bruce had worried that might be the case.

How would anyone react if they woke up and found an older version of themselves staring back from a mirror, surrounded by people you had never met? He was yet to decide whether it was for better or worse that Steve had been there, because of course Tony would recognize the real Captain America in a heartbeat.

Tony looked around the space, reaching out to touch a few things, but he also kept checking Bruce from the corner of his eye, clearly expecting someone to tell him to stop investigating. Bruce let him, seeing as there was nothing dangerous he was touching at the present time. Tony's mind was that of an engineer, and Bruce could see him trying to dissect various machines with his eyes. Problem was, it was all alien to him. Had he ever even seen anything _wireless_?

"I would like to do a scan, make sure there is no internal damage we failed to detect earlier," Bruce said after a bit, gesturing at a table.

Tony looked at it, then looked around, clearly searching for scanning equipment. Depending on how much he had forgotten, he was looking for something huge. Eventually, though, he came and sat on the edge of the table, then gingerly lay down. He was tense, and Bruce just gestured for the scan to begin. Tony's eyes followed the lightshow above him, then the thin mechanical arm extending into a horizontal bar that hovered over him, from which tinier pieces unfolded to create a kind of a track parallel to the table, detectors running up and down it a few times before the entire thing pulled back up.

"That's it?" Tony asked, frowning.

"Quick and painless," Bruce smiled, then pulled up the scan results on a screen. He was aware of Tony sitting up and then moving behind him, trying to see over his shoulder.

"Am I going to die?" he asked, perhaps for dramatic effect. No one laughed.

"No," Bruce decided. "I can see bruising here, but nothing of concern. However, we should consider the real possibility of a concussion so perhaps when you go to sleep, someone should wake you up a few times a night, just to be sure."

"He's fine?" Rhodey asked from the side. "Then how come he doesn't remember?"

"Yeah," Tony agreed, on principle. Not that he remembered what he had forgotten, obviously, but that didn't make it any less frustrating, and he was obviously on edge because of it.

"I'm hoping that will change with a bit of rest and recuperation," Bruce said hopefully.

"What happened?" Rhodey asked, and Tony looked very interested in the response. "Natasha said something about a mission and an explosion."

Bruce nodded, swiftly looking at Tony. Perhaps it would help if he knew. "We tracked down another HYDRA cell –"

"HYDRA?" Tony asked. "As in, Nazis and Red Skull?"

"A more modern version, but yes. They are scattered and on the run since Cap put them out of commission a couple months back," Bruce told him.

Tony blinked. "Huh."

"Tony was working on extracting some data," Bruce went on. "He was out of the suit, within the enemy base, when they set up an explosive. J.A.R.V.I.S. protected him to the best of his ability."

"Why would you get out of the suit in the middle of a battle?" Rhodey asked Tony, clearly expecting him to know the answer.

"The suit?" Tony asked, looking confused, then looked at the clothing he was wearing.

"The armor," Bruce explained. Tony obviously didn't remember that he was Iron Man – any part of it. The way he had looked at his own creation, and didn't react to J.A.R.V.I.S.'s voice, though the name seemed to ring a bell… "That is something you built, a few years ago. That's your… thing, as one of the Avengers."

"I built it," Tony echoed, then looked around the room. "Did I build all this?"

"You designed it," Bruce said. "The entire top of the building, really, especially since it got a bit… wrecked during our first battle together. Battle of New York."

"Sounds dramatic," Tony replied.

"You could call it that," Bruce agreed.

It felt strange when Tony didn't speak up about the invading aliens and the nuke he flew into space at the risk of his own life. Not that Tony ever mentioned the accident to highlight his own willingness to sacrifice his life, but rather as a metaphor that the Avengers were needed to protect the Earth – the Avengers and then some, according to Tony, because he feared more than anything they wouldn't be enough to defend it the next time.

Not that anyone but him actively thought of the _next time_. Bruce agreed, though, that it was a likely occurrence, considering everything else that had taken place in recent years. The world was changing.

With that in mind, it was troubling that Tony couldn't remember who he was. Bruce wasn't an expert, and he hoped it wasn't a worse sign that Tony did, in fact, recall his younger self, though there apparently were misaligned memories there as well that confused him further.

"Would you like to see your work space?" Bruce offered, hoping that might spark some recollection in Tony's brain. To see his own tools and gadgets just as he had left them, his projects and notes waiting for him to resume working…

"Sure," Tony said, also looking optimistic for the first time. Maybe he was thinking the same thing as Bruce, hoping to find something familiar.

"This way," Rhodey offered, and Tony followed him out of the infirmary and down the hall, then ascending to the floor above.

Steve walked into the infirmary when the other two men were a safe distance away. "Anything?"

Bruce sighed, moving to slide his glasses off his nose – only to realize he wasn't wearing them. He forwent them during missions as much as he could, not wanting to misplace yet another pair if he had to transform into the Hulk without warning. He hadn't put them on during this entire time. "Nothing," he told Steve as he found one pair of his spare glasses on another desk. He slid them on, taking another look at Tony's scans. "There's nothing alarming to tell me something would be wrong."

"So, we just wait?" Steve guessed.

"And monitor," Bruce added. He looked at the other, who nodded, looking relatively calm. "There's no telling how long this will drag out," Bruce warned.

Steve pursed his lips but didn't give a reaction otherwise. "We'll make the best of the situation," he said, though Bruce failed to see what that might be.

"Okay," he responded.

"HYDRA is on the run. We'll keep an eye out for another clue, and until then, we stay close to home and hope Iron Man is back in action by the time we have another HYDRA cell to attack," Steve decided.

That was all they could do, Bruce knew. Aside from trying some therapies – or Clint's hard reset, which Bruce wasn't going to agree to – it was going to be a waiting game.

"Should we talk to him about Avengers matters, or keep those to ourselves?" Steve asked.

"I think we should keep him in the loop, in moderation," Bruce said slowly. "He doesn't remember he's Iron Man. I'm not sure he even quite remembers reaching adulthood. These things can be hard to come to terms with until his memory realigns itself, but he'll grow more suspicious and untrusting of us if he feels we're keeping things from him."

"Because he doesn't know who we are," Steve nodded.

"He knows who you are," Bruce smiled a bit.

"Yeah, but I'm not seeing that as a good thing," Steve said darkly. "He seemed to have a hard time accepting that. I wouldn't be surprised if he still thought I'm some kind of an imposter."

Bruce had to agree, and it didn't fill him with confidence that the transitioning period would be easy on any of them. "Maybe we should tell Thor not to talk too much of himself until Tony has a better grasp on everything," he added.

"I'll talk to him," Steve promised. "No reason to bring up the matter of aliens if we don't have to."

Steve left, and Bruce decided to go check how Rhodey and Tony were doing. He tried not to give himself false hope, because being too optimistic would just make it that much harder if Tony failed to reclaim his memories sometime soon.

* * *

When they entered through another futuristic door, Tony didn't feel a sense of familiarity. It was just as jarring as the rest of the 'tower', and it bugged him that he didn't remember designing any of this. Usually his projects stuck with him at least on some level, and the innovation he was seeing would have certainly been worthwhile to remember.

He was aware of Rhodey watching him, trying to do it in an unassuming way, but it was like hot coals burning his back. Tony felt almost guilty for not managing to pull himself together. These people expected him to act a certain way, to provide them with something, and he had no idea what that was.

Tony slowly moved around the room, touching things. Some of the tools were familiar, others he could guess what they were used for – and then there was a plethora of items he had no idea what they did. Were they prototypes? Parts of some machine? Components or completed designs?

Feeling an almost claustrophobic frustration, Tony wandered around the workshop – then was startled by something suddenly moving beside him. A robotic arm extended itself, as if coming out of hibernation, followed by whirring and a bleep.

Tony stared at it and was vaguely aware of Rhodey stepping towards him, opening his mouth to speak.

From a corner farther down the room, another robotic form extracted itself, rolling towards Tony and its twin, and Tony felt a tight grip of emotion clutch at his lungs.

"Hey, buddy," he murmured, touching the bot closest to him, and unexpectedly there were tears in his eyes. He turned himself towards the bot, sliding his hands along its frame, hiding his emotional response.

The second bot reached them, its mechanical claws gently touching Tony's hair, and he reached out his right hand, gripping one of those claws in his fingers. They easily looked like one of the weakest part of the bot's body, but in reality, they were built for complex tasks that often required considerable strength.

Tony closed his eyes, feeling almost as if he were floating on the pleasant sensation of finally recognizing something. He had never imagined something could feel this profound and meaningful.

"You recognize them?" Rhodey asked, sounding hopeful.

Tony nodded, lifting his head and quickly brushing the evidence of tears from his face. "Yeah, of course. I mean…" He realized it might be a little insulting to Rhodey, whom he couldn't really connect to the young man in his memories. However, when he glanced at his companion, Rhodey just looked happy.

"That's great. Maybe the rest of it will come back, too."

Tony didn't tell him it hadn't 'come back'; it had always been there. He supposed that his memories didn't simply cut off at a certain point, but were more like a film that had been torn apart unevenly rather than neatly spliced. He had mixed flashes from the area of the damage, but lacked a complete recollection of what took place before – and none of what came after. That made the most sense, even if he had a hard time wrapping his head around it.

Comprehending it wasn't a matter of genius or a high IQ; he supposed it wasn't the natural state of the brain to forget, and then be constantly teased with reminders it could no longer connect to anything. It was starting to feel like his head was on fire, and not in a good way.

Was there ever a good way?

The door opened again with a soft hiss, and Bruce stepped inside. He was wearing glasses now, and they made him look more like a nerd. Not that Tony cared: he already knew the kind of scientific mind Bruce had, and he was drawn to that.

"Everything going well?" Bruce asked, looking at Tony and the bots.

"He remembered the robots," Rhodey informed him. "Does it make sense he still doesn't remember Jarvis or his armor?"

"They were introduced into his life at different times," Bruce mused. "When did you build the bots, at MIT?" he asked Tony.

Tony nodded, looking at the bots again, noting various differences. Still, they were essentially the same, and it was almost like coming home, finally, having them greet him.

"So, his memory cuts off a couple years later, around 1991?" Rhodey mused.

"Something like that," Bruce agreed. "It's likely he'll have flashes of other stuff, which may appear confusing…"

Tony tuned them out, focusing on the workshop again. The bots trailed behind him, picking up stuff he took too long to look at, or happened to touch, as if waiting for him to tell them what to do with those things. They seemed smarter and much more intuitive than he recalled, but it was still a much easier transition to accept than everything else around him. He was glad to see they had grown and advanced.

"Tony, do you mind if we step outside for a moment?" Bruce asked.

"Go ahead," Tony agreed. "I'll hang out here, see if I can't jog a memory or two."

The two men still seemed uncertain if it was smart to leave him, but they did step out. It was mildly intimidating, being left all alone, but Tony looked at the bots and figured he had all the company he needed right here.

Dummy offered him some gadget and he took hold of it, turning it around in his hands while the bots watched, tilting their heads, following the motions. They used to try and copy the movements of his hands with their arms and claws, but they weren't nearly as dexterous. He used to think he might have to re-design them, but apparently he had decided against that.

_"Sir, Miss Potts has arrived,"_ the almost-but-not-quite voice of Jarvis told him, startling him a bit.

Tony looked around to locate the armor, but couldn't see it. Besides, the sound appeared to have come from the walls, or somewhere around him, but not just from a single speaker. It was as if the voice emanated from the entire room.

He wasn't certain what to do with that information, and he was still puzzling that when the door opened again, a woman stepping inside. She was wearing a dark skirt and dress shirt, very professional. Tony supposed she was beautiful, though she looked a bit too old for him.

Well, too old for what he remembered himself to be, anyway.

"Tony," she started, crossing the room. "Are you okay? They told me you got hurt."

Tony blinked, trying to figure out what he was expected to say.

The woman stopped, blinking, then composed herself, standing straight.

"Uh, I'm fine," Tony offered, then cleared his throat, wondering how he sounded. Not squeaky, he hoped.

"Do you know who I am?" she asked, voice soft, calming. It put Tony somewhat at ease.

"No, ma'am," he replied, yet he felt a strange guilt for being forced to admit it.

She chuckled. "Well, that is a sure sign that you don't remember me: you've never called me 'ma'am' in the entire time we've known each other."

"Miss?" Tony attempted to salvage it.

She laughed. He liked that sound. "It's okay. I'm Pepper Potts." She actually offered her hand for him to shake, and he accepted it.

"They asked me before if I knew you," Tony recalled, then felt his face flush. "I'm assuming I really should know who you are."

"Bruce told me this is most likely temporary, and you could be your old self by tomorrow," she said.

"What if I'm not?" Tony asked, feeling that heavy lump in his chest again. He reached up to rub it, even though he knew that wouldn't fix it.

Pepper watched him, then moved over to find herself a chair, and Tony followed her, sitting down on a nearby work bench, trying to appear aloof and cool. She was a pretty lady, though, and she had come to see him, so he might as well try to impress her.

The bots trailed behind him, clearly waiting for instructions. Tony had no idea what they might have been tasked with the last time he was here.

"Do you come here often?" Tony asked, unsure if he meant the tower or the workshop. He left it up for Pepper to decide.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Are you trying to hit on me?"

Tony cringed internally. "You're a very beautiful lady. It would be rude of me not to." He saw her look, mixed with concern and light amusement. "Right?" he asked, voice smaller, insecure. "I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do or say."

"You don't need to impress me," Pepper told him. "You may not remember, but… we're already there. Well, have been. It's complicated."

Tony processed that for a moment. "We're together? A couple? Did we get a divorce?" he asked, feeling cold sweat on his skin all of a sudden.

Pepper burst out laughing, covering her mouth, trying to compose herself. "Yes and no: we have been a couple for a while, but there have been some ups and downs."

"Which way was it going before I forgot who you are?" Tony asked.

"Up, I think, although there have been… some disagreements between us lately," Pepper said. It sounded like the truth. "Some promises you made, and have been forced to break since."

Tony didn't like the sound of that. At the same time, the ache in his chest increased again, and he supposed his nerves would be shot after this experience. Even as he was slowly rubbing his chest, he saw Pepper watching. "There's this weird pressure in my chest. I think all of this is putting me on edge," he tried to make light of it.

Her face got serious, almost sad. "You don't remember any of it, do you? Afghanistan? What happened after? New York?"

Tony frowned. He felt like there was another keyword there he was supposed to recognize and react to. "No," he finally said, frustration peaking once more.

"Not even Jarvis?" she asked.

_"I'm afraid not, Miss Potts,"_ the voice replied, once again coming smoothly from all around the room. It was a bit like the best movie theaters, only more advanced, and coming at a pleasant volume.

"Who is Jarvis?" Tony asked. "I mean, I know Jarvis – Edwin Jarvis – and I think there's some kind of a connection because of the way this one talks."

"Jarvis – short for 'Just A Rather Very Intelligent System' – is an AI you created. Well, he was initially just a user interface, but that hasn't been the case for many years," Pepper told him.

Tony sounded out the very ridiculous acronym. "That's a really stupid name – I mean, I get why I would have named him Jarvis…"

"I think you just came up with that acronym on the spot, to explain it to someone," Pepper smiled.

Tony looked up around the room. "I always wanted to make an AI. Well, I kind of thought of putting one in the bots, but they were already developing their own identities within the software I created, so it would have been wrong to replace those with something else, even if it was more advanced…"

The bots bleeped, and Tony looked at them, wondering at how similar they were despite everything. He hadn't changed them too much in all these years that had taken place since their inception.

He looked at Pepper again. "So, what happened in Afghanistan? And is the thing in New York connected to me fighting alongside all those other guys?"

Pepper bit her lip in thought. "I think it's not the right time to tell you. There's enough going on, and you should probably try to get some rest, let your body heal."

It suddenly felt like she was freezing him out. Until now, she had been genuine when talking to Tony, but apparently they had approached territory she felt he couldn't handle.

She stood up, standing there with some uncertainty, then took a step closer to Tony and leaned in to kiss his cheek. "I'll see you later, okay?"

"Okay," Tony echoed, trying to take a good whiff of her perfume. Perhaps he had given it to her, though it wasn't familiar to him.

"Good night, Tony," she said, then walked out without looking back.

Tony sat there a moment longer, slowly swinging his legs, then took a breath and dropped himself to the floor. He couldn't help a tiny grimace of pain, his body protesting. "Maybe I should go to bed," he mused. "Where is my bed?" he asked.

_"May I guide you there, sir?"_ Jarvis – or J.A.R.V.I.S., as he perhaps spelled it – replied. Just knowing what was behind the voice put Tony more at ease, and knowing it was his creation made it better, too. The bots weren't startled by this incorporeal entity, either, so they had to be used to it.

"Sure," Tony agreed. He guessed that if he went somewhere he shouldn't, someone would come redirect him. However, it sounded like he lived here, and maybe owned the place – it wasn't hard for him to imagine he might be really rich when he grew up – so perhaps he would tell them he was the boss and would go where he liked.

J.A.R.V.I.S. opened the door, and Tony stepped out through it, seeing the lights dim in the workshop behind him. He looked back, already feeling like maybe he should go back and hang out with the bots, but J.A.R.V.I.S. kept illuminating panels in the floor ahead of him, ready to guide him.

Deciding to give rest a chance, he followed the lights to a floor few levels up, and it took him a moment to realize the entire floor was his domain; there was only one bedroom, and plenty of other spaces, including a gigantic bathroom.

_"Shall I draw you a bath, sir?"_ J.A.R.V.I.S. asked, ever willing to assist.

"Why not?" Tony mused. While the AI did that, he went to check the bedroom, not finding a whole lot of clothes there. He did, however, locate a walk-in closet, and he spent a moment looking at all the suits and power ties, and a long row of shoes for all occasions, from dress shoes to sneakers. What drew him in, eventually, was the array of more worn-down jeans, pants, and various articles of clothing with band names adorning them, as well as other words he didn't know the meaning of. They were just as lovingly placed on the shelves, prominently displayed, and it was like looking at the closets of two different people. Tony knew, however, that they were all his, reflecting the two lives he lived.

One in the limelight, no doubt a corporate leader, and the other for the time he could spend at home, feeling comfortable.

He finally began undressing the clothes he was wearing, struggling with some of the zippers, then padded over to the bathroom. Even though it might have been smarter not to, he couldn't pass up the chance to look in a mirror, seeing the naked body of a man he did not recognize. Bruises and dirt were on his skin, as well as some tiny scratches. Scars stood out on his chest, and he touched them, aware that they stood quite close to the ache he kept feeling.

Maybe it wasn't just anxiousness after all.

_"Your bath is ready, sir,"_ J.A.R.V.I.S. informed him, snapping him out of it, and Tony stepped over to a shower head, cleaning most of the grime off him before slowly settling down in the warm water of what looked like a Jacuzzi.

He sighed, closing his eyes, the warmth making his body release some of the tension he had unknowingly held onto.

_"Sir,"_ J.A.R.V.I.S. prompted.

Tony jerked. He felt very lethargic, and he instantly knew he must have drifted off.

_"Perhaps you should get out of the water and go to bed, sir?"_ J.A.R.V.I.S. suggested gently.

"Yeah," Tony agreed, slowly getting out and giving his body a quick rinse, then toweled himself off. As he did that, J.A.R.V.I.S. had already set to draining and cleaning the tub with some fancy automated functions, and Tony left the AI to it, checking out the vanity. He found a toothbrush that was his, noting there were very few items there that suggested a female presence. As he brushed his teeth, trying to find something familiar about it while staring at his face in the mirror, he once again began to feel surreal.

None of this was familiar. He could follow all the breadcrumbs and mimic the habits he imagined the man living here had, but none of it felt familiar.

With a frown, he left the bathroom and returned to the bedroom, finding himself a pair of underwear and a tank top to slip into before he slid between the cool sheets. J.A.R.V.I.S. was turning off the lights around him.

"Good night, J.A.R.V.I.S.," Tony called out on a whim.

_"Good night, sir,"_ the AI responded.

* * *

It had been a risk to let Pepper Potts interact with Tony, but most of the team was eager to see if it might spark some recognition in Tony, so they let it happen.

Steve sighed when there was no such recollection, and he could tell everyone else shared his disappointment.

"At least he knew his robots," Clint mused. He was going over the arrows in his quiver, seeing as Tony couldn't be trusted to run maintenance on their gear. J.A.R.V.I.S. was doing as much as he could.

"It certainly made him happier," Rhodey agreed. "He was acting more like himself."

"This cannot be easy for him," Thor deemed, arms crossed over his chest. "We should help him adjust."

"All this could be temporary, and something we all laugh about tomorrow," Bruce interjected, watching the monitor carefully to follow the interaction between Tony and Pepper.

"And if he doesn't remember?" Natasha asked. "We need to prepare for that."

"Is it possible it could be permanent?" Rhodey asked uneasily. The thought troubled him, and Steve could understand why. The effects of Iron Man being out of commission for an unknown amount of time would complicate matters for the Avengers – not to mention Tony's own business.

"We don't yet understand the nature of his injury, so anything is possible," Bruce snapped. "It's all hypothetical. There's no reason to go into full disaster mode just yet."

Steve glanced at him from the corner of his eye. Maybe Bruce was just trying not to think of the worst case scenario, hoping it wouldn't come to that.

_"Seeing as there is no apparent injury, the chances of a full recovery are high,"_ J.A.R.V.I.S. chimed in. _"We should closely monitor Mr. Stark to track any changes in his condition."_

"Can you keep an eye on any suspicious HYDRA activity at the same time?" Steve asked. Tony and J.A.R.V.I.S. had been helming that search, though he, Natasha and Clint could pick up the slack if necessary.

_"Of course, Captain Rogers. I am fully capable of maintaining that search independently,"_ the AI responded, not sounding like he was offended by the insinuation he might need help, but Bruce smiled slightly so perhaps he heard some annoyance in J.A.R.V.I.S.'s tone after all.

Pepper seemed to grow more uneasy and took her leave, Tony remaining alone in the workshop. A minute later Pepper joined them in the meeting room, whereas Tony jumped down from his seat and headed out.

"Where is he going?" Clint asked, immediately alert.

_"To bed, Agent Barton,"_ J.A.R.V.I.S. replied dryly. _"I will maintain oversight and report if there is anything to share."_

"Thank you, J.A.R.V.I.S.," Pepper said before any of the Avengers could reply. She took a seat, sighing. "I think I need a drink."

Rhodey moved to pour one for himself and one for Pepper, and looked at the people around the room – then grabbed a bunch of glasses and put them on the long table, pouring them all a shot.

"I think you handled it pretty well," Bruce mused, also taking a seat.

Pepper looked at him, then shrugged. "It was like talking to a stranger, yet… This is the Tony I never got to meet," she said softly, looking at Rhodey. "He's more innocent, less shaped by the experiences that made him into the man you all know."

Rhodey nodded. "It's hard for me to reconcile with that fact. I mean, it's been a long time, and obviously Tony has a lot of gaps in his memory. He himself probably doesn't know how to put it all together into a coherent timeline."

"Let's hope that he doesn't have to figure it out," Steve mused, inhaling the smell of the amber liquid in his glass before taking a sip of it.

Everyone was silent. Obviously they agreed on that – and were preparing themselves for something a lot worse.

* * *

Despite being tired earlier, Tony couldn't sleep: he drifted off for a few hours, then woke up and kept lying in bed, attempting to quiet his mind and make the nervous tension disappear. He was feeling more aches across his body, from whatever had happened that he couldn't remember. There were cuts and abrasions all over his torso, tiny wounds on his face, and he had still been covered in fine dirt particles even when he went to shower and take a bath.

It was getting to him, the _not knowing_, and he didn't like it.

He wondered that if no one had told him, would he even have known something was off? How long would it have taken? Until he saw himself in the mirror?

After having been presented with a volley of questions and a whole lot of partial data – because no one wanted to give him all the facts for some reason – he felt all the more frustrated. Not knowing what was expected of him, and knowing these people were most certainly waiting for something, was aggravating. It didn't help that this group was essentially like strangers to him, and he was caught in between wanting to ignore them and wishing he could give them what they wanted.

And maybe provide himself with some answers, too.

A fully digital screen near the bed was telling Tony that it was in the middle of the night, just a little past two. Despite the hour, he got up and grabbed some stuff from the closet because they were his, so it was fine. He went for jeans, a comfortable long-sleeved shirt, and sneakers.

As he came out of the closet, he stopped to stare at the far wall, which constituted floor-to-ceiling windows. Slowly he walked closer, taking a look down across the Manhattan streets. He knew what it was, some of the landmarks familiar, but the amount of lights, high-rises, and traffic moving down below… The neon signs were long gone, but the night was still a-glow to a point of almost making the night sky above disappear into a dark abyss.

_"Sir,"_ J.A.R.V.I.S. prompted, most likely to remind Tony that he was being watched.

"I want to go back to the shop," Tony said, turning away from the view outside.

_"Of course,"_ the AI replied, pretending it wasn't an issue.

He managed to get to the workshop without running into anyone, though J.A.R.V.I.S. was actively lighting his way, sort of keeping him company.

Tony wasn't certain how he felt about the AI. In part, he was sorry he couldn't remember creating J.A.R.V.I.S., because that was definitely an achievement he had been looking forward to all his youth, even though he could have never dreamt up stuff like this. Having that gap in his memory, and being faced by a program that mimicked their old family butler was kind of unsettling, and while he wasn't exactly afraid of J.A.R.V.I.S., he wasn't sure how to deal with him either.

At the workshop, the bots were dozing in sleep-mode. They stirred at his proximity, whirring softly as they moved forward, ready for the day's work. Tony tried to see if anything in the room would spark a bit of recognition, a hint at what he had been working on. It didn't help that all this was alien, someone else's work-space and life. The only thing he felt a connection to was the bots, and he slid his hand across Dummy's body as the bot came close enough. The slight vibration under his fingers – a current, a heartbeat – was comforting, even though it wasn't what he had once built.

Part of him wanted to take the bots apart a little, to see what had changed, because obviously they had been upgraded. He would have never trusted anyone else to do it, so it must have been the Tony he couldn't remember right now.

However, the idea of dismantling the bots, even to see under the hood, was unthinkable at this time, seeing as they were his only thread of familiarity.

He wished he would have truly recognized Rhodey, but the more he thought about it, the less of a connection he felt. It was like he was trying to force himself to accept the changes, and that wasn't how it worked. These new things didn't fit with his memories.

Tony kept walking around the space, looking at things, picking items up more boldly than before. It was just him and the bots after all – and J.A.R.V.I.S., who was quiet, but ever-present. There was no way to explain it, but Tony knew there were eyes on him.

"Are the others awake?" Tony asked after a bit. Not that he was sure J.A.R.V.I.S. would give him an honest answer.

_"Captain Rogers and Agent Romanoff remain awake, sir. They are… concerned for your well-being."_

"Have you told them I'm awake and down here?" Tony asked.

_"Would you like me to?"_ Was that a 'no'?

"No," Tony said. "I would like a bit of privacy."

_"Of course, sir."_

The AI sounded like he was agreeing to Tony's request, but there was no knowing if it was just a façade to keep him calm.

Tony continued his exploration, then found a fridge with some snacks and drinks in it. He was suddenly hungry and explored the selection, picking out a wrapped item which ended up being a burrito. It smelled okay, and he located a microwave. Well, at least that's what he hoped it was, seeing as the only familiar thing was the shape and size.

After puzzling over the touch-panel controls, he managed to turn it on and heat his snack. He also grabbed a bottle of soda – even though it was a green tea flavored one with added vitamins and minerals – and while munching on the burrito, he located a drawer full of dried fruit and other rather healthy stuff. Tony looked at them, placing a few that looked appetizing on the counter, then found another cabinet that held bottles of alcohol and glasses. Somehow that did not surprise him at all, and he even poured himself a few fingers of scotch.

No one protested.

Tony tried to envision the person who had stocked up this work space with these very specific things. Just like with the clothes in the room upstairs, it felt like there was this kind of a divide: custom-made suits and ragged band apparel, expensive alcohol and healthy snacks. As if someone was living two different lives…

"J.A.R.V.I.S.," Tony spoke up.

_"Yes, sir?"_

"I created you, right?"

_"Indeed, sir."_

"Does that mean you have to obey my every command?" Tony held his breath, wondering if that meant he could use J.A.R.V.I.S. to figure out the things he wanted to know.

_"In principal, yes,"_ the AI replied after a bit of a pause. It was interesting that there was one, and Tony wondered why.

"That's not a straight answer," Tony stated.

J.A.R.V.I.S. didn't reply.

"Are you trying to avoid telling me something?" Tony pressed. If he built an AI, he would make sure it obeyed him.

_"For your own protection, sir,"_ J.A.R.V.I.S. finally responded. _"There are things you clearly do not remember, and the team is not certain if filling the blanks is advisable at this time. I share their concern."_

Tony frowned. "It might help," he suggested. For the life of him he could not imagine what might be lurking in the shadows. All of this was so surreal. The technology around him, the people… Captain America. Part of him couldn't believe it was him. If Tony hadn't seen the man staring back at him from reflective surfaces, he would have never even considered that what they were telling him about losing his memory might be true.

But there were so many things missing, he could tell. Numerous details and flashes that floated in and out of his memory, out of order, disorienting. None of them really contradicted one another, but it was like trying to put a difficult puzzle together, and he was pretty sure he only had pieces for a couple corners of the whole picture.

Tony kept thinking of his parents, and where they might be, and then it occurred to him he did remember their funeral. It just seemed so fresh, in a way, having them there…

He didn't want to dwell on that, so he looked around the alien space again, wondering if he should go poking around and see what all these things did. He knew he would figure it out, sooner or later; he was smart, after all. And apparently he had built all this, so it should be familiar.

For some reason he was confident that he would remember how this tech worked faster than he would recall who any of these people were.

The bots still looked like they were waiting for him to start doing something they could participate in.

"What was I doing, the last time I was in here?" Tony asked.

Both bots tilted their arms, then looked down. Tony followed their example, and as if on cue, the floor turned less opaque, revealing a space underneath. It looked almost like an assembly line for something, with robotic arms folded and waiting to be put to work.

"What is that for?" Tony asked.

_"The Iron Legion, sir,"_ J.A.R.V.I.S. replied. _"A group of semi-autonomous drones controlled by me – and yourself, of course."_

"Huh," Tony said. "Can I see one up close?"

He could hear some machinery moving, then he looked up and to the right, seeing something like an elevator rising up through a sudden gap in the floor. On the platform stood a black-and-white humanoid shape, a lot like the armor he had seen earlier, but it looked a bit less bulky. Probably because it wasn't supposed to fit a human pilot inside.

Tony walked over to it, moving around it. The drone, as J.A.R.V.I.S. had called it, seemed lifeless. He slowly raised a hand and touched it, trying to become familiar with it. "I built this?"

_"Yes, sir,"_ J.A.R.V.I.S. replied.

"What about the other one? The one that's…" He frowned. "I was wearing it?"

_"During the mission yesterday, yes."_

"Until I took it off and then there was an explosion?" Tony tried to piece it together. He could remember every little detail of what had occurred since he woke up on that aircraft, Quinjet, so his memory wasn't faulty.

_"Indeed, sir."_

"Can I see that, too?"

This time the floor didn't reveal another lift, but a section of the back wall opened, and he could see the red-and-gold armor inside, a very different color scheme from the drone. Tony walked over to it, standing in front of it, feeling oddly small in comparison. His eyes dropped down to the circular area in the middle of the armor's chest, and he reached out to touch it, remembering how it had been lit up before. As if activated by his touch, it suddenly began to glow, with a barely decipherable sound, and he stepped back as the armor's eyes lit up as well. It was as if the armor breathed in, shifting ever so minutely, coming alive.

_"I'm sorry, sir. The armor misinterpreted your signals. I shall turn it off –"_

"Don't," Tony said, taking another step back. He kept looking at the armor, and it felt like it was looking back. Part of him was really nervous, but the rest… This was supposed to be familiar to him, and he supposed that perhaps in a sense, he could convince himself that it was.

The technology in front of him was just as incomprehensible to him as the surrounding room in general. His brain felt like it was constantly being overheated with stimuli, trying to parse things together into something he knew, or could easily adapt to understand.

He had built this thing in front of him, yet he had no recollection of that. Was it only 'familiar' because people told him it was supposed to be? It bore no resemblance to the bots and the techniques he had used to build them.

Tony took one more step back, then motioned for the armor to follow. He wasn't sure if he needed to give J.A.R.V.I.S. or the armor a verbal cue, but the AI had implied that the armor had tried to interpret him before, so –

It did step forward, and Tony backed up a little more, letting the armor step completely away from its docking station, or whatever it was called. Eventually he lifted his hand, and the armor stopped. Still, it felt like it was looking at him, the same way Tony always knew if the bots were doing the same.

As if on cue, the bots rolled up, chirping. You picked up a rag and proceeded to polish the armor's left arm, though there was no dirt Tony could see. Dummy reached up to its full height and seemed to stare the armor in the eye for a moment, then moved away again. Tony smiled, unable to help himself.

"Yeah, don't get into a staring contest with this guy," he said to the bot. The armor stood there, unyielding, unflinching.

Dummy let out a sound of protest, actually flicking the armor's face with its claw.

Tony laughed, then moved to dodge under Dummy's arm and move around the armor, sliding his hand along it, feeling the thrum of energy. To the outside, it was very smooth, though he could tell it was made of numerous small pieces. He couldn't determine their function like this, and while he knew he probably could have asked J.A.R.V.I.S. for information, perhaps that was a mystery for another time.

All of a sudden something like an alarm began to sound, making Tony jump. The bots perked up, shifting nervously, and Tony tried to see if something had happened within the workshop area. There was no smoke, no fire.

"What's going on?" Tony asked.

_"No need for concern, sir. The Avengers are responding to the threat,"_ J.A.R.V.I.S. told him, and the alarm suddenly disappeared.

"A threat?" Tony asked. The silence was almost deafening now.

J.A.R.V.I.S. kept mum.

"Are you freezing me out?" Tony demanded.

_"Perhaps you would like to go back to your room, sir?"_ J.A.R.V.I.S. requested.

"I would like to know what is going on, and I'm staying here," he said stubbornly. That's where the bots were, after all, and if here was danger, maybe Tony could fashion some kind of a weapon out of all this stuff. Something simple yet effective…

_"Please, sir,"_ J.A.R.V.I.S. pleaded.

Tony stood his ground, folding his arms over his chest. The AI didn't want to tell him things? Fine. Then Tony wouldn't do as he was asked.

A sudden shiver seemed to run through the building, making the whole structure vibrate, and Tony thought he perhaps detected an explosion in the distance. All of a sudden staying here wasn't the most appealing of options, but then, what difference did it make if he went up to his room? At least he had the bots here, as well as the drone and the armor, though he wasn't sure if the last two could be helpful in some way.

* * *

Natasha had barely closed her eyes when J.A.R.V.I.S. sounded the alarm.

_"I am not yet aware of how it happened, but there are HYDRA agents in the building,"_ the AI declared. _"They have caused significant harm to the closed-circuit cameras and many of the safety checkpoints are offline throughout the building."_

Natasha was up and fastening her gear before J.A.R.V.I.S. was done, knowing the others would be doing the same. It was unprecedented that HYDRA was coming to them, so there had to be a reason.

"Are they looking for something specific?" Natasha asked. "Trying to access files, locate something?"

_"It would seem they are trying to come upstairs,"_ J.A.R.V.I.S. said – which meant Avengers' quarters or the R&D floors. _"I will try to find out more."_

Natasha moved out of her room, meeting Steve and Clint in the common area. Thor was the next one in, and Bruce came in last, still in the process of pulling on a shirt, his fly open. At least it looked like he had been able to sleep for a moment.

"Are they really attacking us here?" Bruce asked.

"We need to evacuate the building," Steve said. "If this gets ugly, I don't want civilians in the way."

"I saw Rhodey on my way up here, he said he and Pepper are on it," Clint told him. "He also said he's going to suit up as soon as he can."

Steve nodded. "J.A.R.V.I.S., can you track the evacuation process?"

_"I am attempting to do so, Captain. The intruders have caused considerable damage, however, and without some manual rerouting, the systems won't be fully operational. I did, however, intercept a partial conversation. It would appear HYDRA's goal here is to find Mr. Stark."_

"Why?" Clint asked.

"That's what they said?" Bruce asked.

_"There was no mistaking it, or the phrasing."_

"He must have seen something," Natasha mused. "Before the explosion. Was Tony looking at files, even though he didn't manage to download any?"

_"Indeed, Agent Romanoff,"_ the AI confirmed.

"The agents of HYDRA would dare to come here, to our home, for something Stark saw on their computer?" Thor frowned.

"The timing matches. Could have been something important," Steve mused. "However, they cannot possibly know Tony can't remember any of it."

"Or that Iron Man isn't going to make an appearance tonight," Clint said darkly. "Can we put Rhodey into that armor instead?"

_"Unfortunately that is not possible,"_ J.A.R.V.I.S. answered.

"Do we know where HYDRA is now?" Steve asked. "Until evacuation is complete, we should try to contain them, but not engage if it causes danger to the outsiders."

_"I am attempting to pinpoint their current whereabouts, but they are making it difficult."_ J.A.R.V.I.S. almost sounded annoyed by that.

"Where is Tony?" Bruce asked.

_"In his lab."_

Everyone seemed shocked by that.

"How long has he been there?" Steve asked.

_"A little less than an hour,"_ J.A.R.V.I.S. replied.

"How… is he?" Bruce asked.

_"Mr. Stark is refusing to return to his room."_

"As long as we don't know where HYDRA is, exactly, that won't matter," Steve scowled, then looked at Natasha. "Can you go and make sure Tony stays safe?"

Natasha nodded. Perhaps Steve was hoping she could be a calming influence. Bruce might have been their best choice, since Tony seemed to trust him, but Bruce was looking a bit jumpy so perhaps that wasn't the safest option. "We'll be fine," she promised, then as she moved towards the stairs, she stopped in front of Bruce, giving him a smile. "Try to stay calm, okay? Maybe help J.A.R.V.I.S. to contain the situation." She also very stealthily zipped him up, which made him jump. Natasha couldn't help smiling.

"Yeah," Bruce said, nodding, and she moved away, checking out the hallways as she moved up to the lab area. While she was still moving, there was something akin to a far-away explosion, and she put a bit more speed into her step, just in case. On an average day, the Avengers had no difficulties beating up a HYDRA squad, but the enemy had managed to cripple their defenses and they needed to protect both their surroundings and the people still leaving the premises. Plus, this was usually the part where Tony's skillset was quite useful.

Just as J.A.R.V.I.S. had said, Tony was in his lab. His robots were with him, and his armor was standing nearby, looking ready for action. There was also one of the autonomous robots Tony had been working to polish, which the Avengers had used for crowd control in a few instances.

"Hey, Tony," she greeted, trying not to sound tense. Natasha didn't like how this was going so far, with the HYDRA agents able to slip into their headquarters so easily. Either they were really desperate, or the Avengers were getting sloppy.

Tony seemed a bit jumpy. "What's going on?" he asked.

"There are some technical issues we are trying to figure out," she replied.

Tony frowned, as if he knew she was avoiding the truth. Natasha couldn't know what J.A.R.V.I.S. had told him. Maybe nothing, hence his question – or maybe he was testing her to see if she would lie.

Seeing him like this, quiet and guarded, helped to remind Natasha that Tony wasn't all there. He wasn't running his mouth, covering up his discomfort. Sure, he had tried to pull that off on the Quinjet, but since then he must have come to the conclusion things were very wrong, and thus they were seeing a side of Tony that rarely made an appearance.

"J.A.R.V.I.S. said there is a threat," Tony stated, eyes flashing to check the area beyond the lab; the walls were turned transparent, allowing him to see what transpired outside, although for the time being there was no one there.

"It's barely that, and the others are handling it," Natasha intoned with confidence.

"There was an explosion," Tony added, as if he had a hypothesis he wanted to prove right.

Natasha wondered if it would be easier just telling him the truth. Part of her was curious to see what would happen. In his current state, had Tony regressed to a teenager, or a young adult? He didn't remember any of the events that had resulted in him becoming Iron Man. Only Rhodey remembered this Tony, and even he seemed to be struggling a bit.

"It was just a slight tremor," Natasha told him, deciding she had no time to try and handle Tony if he freaked out.

"Then why are you here?" Tony demanded.

"To keep an eye on you," Natasha offered him a tight smile. At least that part was not a lie. She could have tried to sweet-talk him, but she suspected he was too suspicious for that, and Natasha was all geared up for a fight, not a chat over drinks.

Tony kept any further questions to himself, but he looked far from satisfied.

Natasha pretended to be fixing her hair, adjusting her earpiece at the same time. It was fairly quiet on the comms still, and she hoped those weren't affected by whatever the HYDRA agents had done downstairs. J.A.R.V.I.S. would let them know.

Tony pretended to ignore her, picking up some stuff, his robots nearby, watching his every move. Even to Natasha it was clear that Tony had no idea what those items were for, and he was attempting to study them without letting that show. Maybe she should have brought Bruce with her, to make sure Tony didn't fiddle with anything that could blow a hole in the Tower.

J.A.R.V.I.S. was hopefully keeping an eye on that, too.

The armor that was standing near the back of the lab suddenly perked up, looking past Natasha' shoulder, and that was the only warning she got before a group of HYDRA soldiers came running down the hallway.

_"Agent Romanoff –!"_ J.A.R.V.I.S. started through the speakers in the room.

"A little warning next time?!" she snapped, whirling around. She could hear the distinctive sound of the lab door locking into place, and the lights significantly dimmed all around them. Tony took a startled step back – then actually yelped when a bullet hit the transparent wall. It didn't breach and barely left a mark on the surface, but it told Natasha something important: they weren't here to question Tony, but to silence him. Otherwise they would have taken more care where to fire their weapon, instead of putting it on a direct trajectory towards Tony's head.

_"They have managed to circumvent the safety relays,"_ J.A.R.V.I.S. said, sounding rushed and mildly annoyed. _"Automated Tower Security has gone offline."_

"Great," Natasha growled. "Update the others. How long before they breach the lab?"

_"The walls are designed to withstand most conceivable malfunctions within the lab, so it could be a while,"_ the AI replied.

"But the walls are not designed to hold off a threat coming from the outside," she guessed.

_"No, they are not."_

The HYDRA soldiers were fanning out, touching the wall as if to test its resistance.

_"I have adjusted the opacity settings of the wall. As long as its integrity remains uncompromised, they cannot see what takes place inside."_

That was good; it gave Natasha time to figure out a plan until the others arrived. She could try and sneak up on the enemy, to take them out, but she was outnumbered and possibly out-gunned. "How is the evacuation going?" she asked, keeping an eye on the HYDRA soldiers outside.

_"Another fifteen minutes and all but the essential personnel should be outside. I have alerted local fire department and police, but with the Avengers on the premises, I have asked them to simply keep the public at a safe distance from the Tower in case the fight does escalate. It will remain to be seen whether the authorities agree to that request. The rest of the team is heading to your location, but as I have been unable to ascertain how many hostiles are within the building, Captain Rogers wants to make sure we have the situation contained."_

Natasha nodded, still trying to keep track of all the enemies outside. There were six of them, spreading out, mapping the area, seemingly confident there was no danger of an unpleasant surprise attack from the Avengers. That was rather arrogant of them, seeing as the entire team was in the Tower, so maybe they were keeping tabs on the others – or they were very intent on getting to Tony, which they proved by trying to dig into a seam in the wall, to force it open.

For the time being, the door held fast.

Two of the HYDRA soldiers had not returned back to where Natasha could see them, which understandably made her a little nervous. "J.A.R.V.I.S., where are the rest of them?" she asked.

_"Down the hall, trying to find a way in. I believe they are working to reach the door's circuitry to bypass it."_

"Can they do that?"

_"With the right tools, yes."_

Natasha guessed that normal Tower safety protocols would have stopped unwanted visitors by now. The AI didn't seem pleased by this development, and if things were normal, Tony would have been furious.

She turned to look at him, finding Tony looking rather nervous. "It's going to be okay," she told him. "Just do as I tell you – or J.A.R.V.I.S. – and –"

"It will be okay?" Tony snapped. "That doesn't look like it's going to be okay!" he pointed at the wall, and sure enough, there were sparks flying from around the corner: someone was trying to get inside the wall to access the circuitry, was Natasha's first guess.

"Can't you do something about that?" Natasha asked out loud.

_"The security systems are being jammed. Going through all the error messages is taking time, and new ones keep appearing,"_ the AI complained.

Natasha guessed it wasn't something J.A.R.V.I.S. could just bypass, because otherwise the AI would have already done that. Or Tony would have, manually taking control of the systems, rebooting them. In any case, he would have already gone out there in the armor and removed any unwanted people from the premises. Not that the Avengers were incapable of doing that without Tony, but it helped to have him there. Right now he was going to be of no assistance, and she was beginning to realize someone would need to keep him out of harm's way if this got hairy.

She had babysat plenty of people in her life, even in the midst of action; prized scientists or other such assets, or a target she was in the process of extracting when things started going sideways. It often helped if they were frozen in fear, because it meant Natasha could operate around them and not fear them taking off or making a stupid, possibly life-threatening decision when they thought they saw an opening or freaked out.

Natasha debated whether she could afford to wait until the rest of the team arrived; to chance HYDRA breaking in and fighting on their terms. Would it be better to make a move of her own before it came to that? She looked around the lab. Maybe J.A.R.V.I.S. knew if there was something useful lying around – though the thing that jumped out at her the most was the armor.

"J.A.R.V.I.S., you can drive the armor, right?" she confirmed.

_"Indeed, Agent Romanoff."_

"Can you take out the HYDRA soldiers outside?"

The AI seemed to be hesitating. _"Of course,"_ J.A.R.V.I.S. replied. _"I would, however, rather have the armor remain close to Mr. Stark, just in case."_

"What about the other ones?" she asked, nodding towards the unmanned robot.

_"The Iron Legion is meant for crowd control, not a direct firefight."_

"Not even in an emergency?" she pressed.

Again, the AI seemed to hesitate. Maybe there were protocols J.A.R.V.I.S. needed to override in order to do that; Natasha wasn't clear on what Tony had intended to do with the Iron Man mock-ups.

It felt short-sighted, however, if they didn't have fight capabilities.

_"I could do that, of course, but I would rather have Mr. Stark's express command."_

"Well, ask him," Natasha looked at Tony. "He's right there. Tell J.A.R.V.I.S. it's okay to take those robots into battle," she ordered Tony.

_"At the moment, I wouldn't count that as informed consent,"_ the AI snapped – at least, it was as close to a snap J.A.R.V.I.S. ever got.

"Yeah," Tony said slowly. "Not all robots are equal. If J.A.R.V.I.S. thinks I wouldn't want them to fight whoever those guys are…"

"HYDRA," she cut in.

"– maybe they shouldn't?" Tony finished a bit uncertainly.

Natasha tried not to get frustrated. It wasn't that they needed Tony's robots, but it might reduce the risks of unnecessary injuries on their side. She knew J.A.R.V.I.S. was quite capable in the heat of the battle, and the AI's help would have been appreciated.

"Fine," she said. "The team will handle it. Can you keep an eye on Tony if I step outside to take out these guys?" she asked, looking directly at the armor; she knew J.A.R.V.I.S. was watching the room through it as well, sitting firmly in the driver's seat since Tony was unable to.

_"Of course, Agent Romanoff."_

"What do you mean, 'take them out'?" Tony asked, alarmed. "You're going to leave me here?" There was a slight edge of fear in his voice, and he looked uneasily at the armored men moving outside in the hall.

"Just stay here," Natasha told him, relieved Tony was currently lacking his usual impulse to get involved in a fight regardless of his inability to pull his own weight.

She checked the charge on her stingers and batons, the number of ammo for her guns, and made sure all the straps and buttons were as they should be, to keep knives and other smaller weapons reachable but securely out of the way.

Tony was looking increasingly worried, staring at the HYDRA soldiers outside. The hallways lights flickered on and off twice, suddenly, and Natasha heard a tiny _whoosh_ of an air current, as if someone had just broken a seal on the room.

She looked at the door, deciding there was a chance it was no longer secure.

"Stay in here!" she barked to Tony in no uncertain terms. "Do as J.A.R.V.I.S. tells you!"

Then she charged to the door, finding it a hair's width ajar. As she pushed her hand against it, she felt it slide further open without any resistance, and she activated the Widow Bites as she slid through the opening to attack the four men in the hallway. They didn't expect her, so she had a few seconds to her advantage, sliding under their belatedly raised weapons and moving in to incapacitate as many of them as she could.

"Anyone who can hear this, I'm engaging the enemy outside the lab. Feel free to join me," she said into the comms before grunting from a weapon being slammed into her midsection. It forced her backwards, and she moved to swiftly retaliate because she was already outnumbered, and it was in everyone's best interest if the HYDRA soldiers focused on her and forgot about the open door to the lab behind her.

* * *

Tony's anxiety was reaching new levels. When Natasha had moved outside to meet the invaders head on – Tony had seen the HYDRA emblems on their uniforms, but it was still really hard to believe it was the WWII organization behind all this – he couldn't help but notice the door to the lab was still ajar.

His eyes kept moving between the opening and where she was fighting the four men, quite successfully. Maybe it wouldn't matter…

Then one of the two remaining villains came back into view, firing a weapon that shot some kind of an energy blast rather than a bullet, and it hit Natasha square in the chest, sending her crashing back into a wall behind her. Tony cringed, not hearing her involuntary sound of pain but quite certain there was one.

He wanted to go and close the door, but he wasn't sure if the lock still worked. J.A.R.V.I.S. probably would have closed the door if it was possible.

_"Sir, please move towards the back of the lab, please,"_ the AI requested through the speakers in the room, and simultaneously the robotic armor started moving towards the door.

Tony swallowed, tempted to make sure it wasn't going to leave him alone, too, but he held his tongue. He had no idea what to do, yet Natasha had seemed to hope he would have more of a handle on the situation. She wanted Tony to act the way he normally would have, but at the moment didn't remember.

He worried Natasha might not be able to handle the HYDRA intruders, but J.A. .S. was making no move to go assist her, the armor facing the doorway but not advancing further. There was a hum coming from the armor, as well as glowing of certain parts. Tony really hoped they were weapons.

As capable as Natasha seemed to be, she was outnumbered and possibly outgunned; her attack power didn't measure up to the bigger weapons – one of which ended up collapsing part of the corridor as it was fired, spreading dust and sparks everywhere.

Tony backed away as the cloud spread into the lab as well, covering his mouth and nose with his arm. The bots were shifting nervously, letting out sounds that could barely be heard over the noise of the fight outside.

"Should we help her?" Tony finally called out to J.A.R.V.I.S.

_"You are my priority, sir,"_ the AI replied, the armor turning its head just slightly, as if looking back at him from the corner of its glowing eye. _"Agent Romanoff is more than capable –"_

A shape appeared in the doorway, and the armor raised its arms, firing a blueish blast. A man grunted, falling back, but another took his place, firing back at the armor before it could respond. It didn't seem to do much damage, the blast partially ricocheting off the metal surface, making Tony dodge down as it blew a nearby overhead light into hundreds of tiny pieces.

He felt something tugging on his shirt, yelping with alarm. Lashing back with his arm to defend himself, he hit it on something solid, finding one of the bots behind him, pulling him backwards. "Sorry," he apologized, then followed. They scooted down against the back wall, behind one of the lab tables, though it wasn't much of a hiding place.

Tony saw flashes, dust and smoke whirling in the air, making his eyes water. He could feel it in his lungs, making him want to cough and find fresh air. His heart was beating madly in his chest, skin clammy with sweat.

For a moment the shooting intensified, and he was fairly certain something small exploded on the other side of the workshop, an alarm blaring. Then there was a sound of metal screaming, the floor shivering, and Tony could see past the edge of the table he was hiding behind that the armor had just torn another workshop bench free of its bolts in the floor, tossing it at the doorway.

_"Sir, I am beginning to think we cannot stay here,"_ the AI informed him through the armor's speakers. _"While I am capable of using more drastic measures, it could compromise the building's safety. Evacuating you from the scene, however, could undermine the enemy's goal."_

"Uh, okay," Tony blinked, wiping a mixture of sweat and dust from his face. "What does that mean, exactly?" Yes, he understood the words, but there was no way he was going to go out there where people were still shooting at each other.

The armor walked over, then stopped on his side of the table – and seemed to unfold at the front. _"Please get in, sir,"_ the AI told him.

Tony blinked. It looked like a man-shaped coffin. "But I don't know… I don't _remember_ how to use that thing!" he protested.

_"I shall control all of the suit's functions. Please, sir: we are low on time. There are more hostiles joining the fight."_

Tony glanced outside, to see if he could spot Natasha. She was nowhere to be seen – or heard – though there was definitely fighting taking place somewhere a bit further away. He looked at the armor, biting his lip, hands flexing nervously. "What if you just pretend to have me inside?" he asked, having no idea if anyone could tell the difference from the outside.

J.A.R.V.I.S. didn't deign to answer. Instead, Tony was suddenly shoved from behind by two forceful bots, and one of them reached out to tug on his arm, spinning him around. He stumbled back, and suddenly the armor was pulling him within itself, wrapping around his form, tight and suffocating.

"Wait!" Tony yelled, suddenly terrified, but it wrapped around his body rapidly, preventing his escape.

For half a second it was dark, only a little light coming in through the eye slits, then the interior of the helmet exploded with figures and imagery Tony had no time to try and figure out. Some of the symbols he knew, but they changed rapidly, as did the values on the screen. Perhaps it was because J.A.R.V.I.S. was in control, and they were there just out of habit, to give Tony something to look at. There was no need for him to actually process anything.

_"Calm down, sir,"_ the AI told him, voice smooth and much quieter inside the helmet.

"Easy for you to say," Tony panted. He couldn't move; he tried to take a step, to wriggle a finger, but there was nowhere for him to go. It was like being in a full-body cast. Frankly, he was amazed he had room to move his lips. "Please, let me out."

_"I'm sorry, sir, but this is for your own protection."_

Tony closed his eyes, trying to calm down – then actually let out a yell when the armor began moving, taking his body with it. He had never experienced anything like it, the powerful machine pulling his limbs along. There was no way his muscles could stop it, though they tried resisting out of sheer shock and being unable to predict where and when he was being moved.

_"Try to relax,"_ the AI told him, perhaps aware of how painful every motion was.

Tony had never suffered from claustrophobia, but he was really beginning to. It didn't help that the bots were making reassuring noises at him, following the armor, or that J.A.R.V.I.S. was in there with him. He didn't feel safe – and he most certainly didn't feel in control of anything.

It was the most terrifying experience of his life.

_"Breathe, sir, please,"_ J.A.R.V.I.S. pleaded with him, but kept moving. Before them, a wall panel moved to the side, letting them into a corridor.

"Please, let me go. I don't want to do this," Tony begged, feeling like he might start crying. His body hurt, and there was no way he could just relax himself to go with the flow.

_"I can administer a sedative if you would prefer that."_

Tony had no idea which part of that sentence was supposed to be reassuring.

The entire armor shivered all of a sudden, and he felt something pushing at his insides. It was almost like falling, but it kept tugging at him like continued inertia when a plane took off, and he saw something flashing before his eyes – then suddenly saw the Manhattan skyline coming into view.

He may have screamed, realizing they were suddenly airborne.

_"Please, sir, calm down!"_

Tony wasn't sure if it mattered, because his movements did nothing to the armor. Perhaps the AI simply found his panic annoying.

They kept climbing higher, and Tony wondered what would happen if he vomited – or peed himself. He tried very hard not to do either of those things. He felt lightheaded, shaky, every muscle threatening to cramp. His body was held in a certain position, clearly optimal for flight, and he tried to focus on processing that information, which might have been incredibly fascinating at any other moment.

He felt tears on his face, and there was a taste of copper and salt in his mouth. Perhaps he had bitten his tongue or cheek?

The tremors traveling through the armor calmed into a steady vibrating. Tony blinked, trying to focus on what he was seeing again. It was still nauseating, realizing how high he was, essentially hanging in the air within a small metal contraption. He found himself hovering in the air, and after a while, he could almost enjoy the sights.

"Where's the Tower?" Tony asked, and saw a blue circle appear on the screen. The armor turned around a bit, which he could feel, of course, and then he saw it below them, towering over most of the neighboring buildings. There was smoke rising from it, betraying the fight inside, and he could see lights flashing on the streets surrounding it, as well as what he thought was masses of people.

The longer he looked at the small details, the less anxious he felt about his situation. The unease his body had experienced was vanishing somewhat, as if it recognized the situation and deemed it harmless. His mind, of course, was still courting chaos, wanting nothing more than to be returned back down to solid earth where he could move of his own free will.

It didn't escape him, though, that his body knew these motions, was perhaps even soothed by the vibrations of the suit. In truth, it was the first truly familiar thing – aside from the bots – he'd experienced ever since waking up in the Quinjet, even though he had no idea why he felt that way. Logically, he could make an educated guess, but the fact he had completely lost his cool earlier was a harsh reminder that no matter what his body was used to, his mind was the one in control.

"How's it going down there?"

_"I am establishing a line of communications to the Avengers below,"_ J.A.R.V.I.S. told him calmly. _"There are still disturbances, but I have managed to bypass the most critical ones."_

"Did everyone else get out safely?" Tony asked, still looking down at what looked like tiny ants.

_"Only the very essential staff are inside the building, most of them in the lobby. I am attempting to ascertain if Miss Potts and Colonel Rhodes also made it out safely."_

Tony would have nodded, but he could barely shift his head inside the helmet. It was a really tight fit, but that may have been for a reason.

After a while, the muffled sounds began to feel stifling; he was cut off from the world and the elements, confined and helpless. "Can I at least listen to the communications?" Tony asked. "It's getting a bit claustrophobic here."

J.A.R.V.I.S. seemed to decide it was the better of two evils to have him accidentally overhear something, and the helmet was filled with sounds of the people he had learned to recognize in the previous day. There was some static and the occasional loss of a signal, but otherwise it was clean and crisp in a way Tony wasn't quite used to.

_"– the north stairwell is clear,"_ Clint Barton was saying.

_"How are the Tower defenses coming?"_ Natasha asked.

_"HYDRA is still blocking them, but we're narrowing it down,"_ Bruce replied. _"J.A.R.V.I.S. is working to find the origin of the disruptive signal."_

_"Once you do, take Barton to shut it down,"_ Captain America ordered.

Tony still had a hard time believing it was the same guy from the news reels, but hearing him relay orders… it was hard to disprove it.

_"How goes the extermination at your end?"_ Clint asked.

_"We've handled it, though one of them scurried away, and it's likely they still have friends out there,"_ Natasha replied. She sounded a bit out of breath. _"Surveillance feeds would be really great right about now."_

_"Working on it, Agent Romanoff,"_ J.A.R.V.I.S. replied. _"Sir,"_ the AI added, startling Tony. _"Thor is approaching. Please don't be alarmed."_

"Approaching?" Tony frowned, then suddenly the large man was there, being pulled up by the hammer Tony had seen him carry around. He was actually flying. With his red cape billowing behind him, he came to a halt in front of Tony, giving him a brief smile.

"Stark, I have come to accompany you. Fear not, this matter will soon be handled by our friends."

"Shouldn't you be down there, handling it with them?" Tony asked, though he had no idea if the other could hear him.

Apparently he could. "The Captain asked me to check on you, seeing as your… J.A.R.V.I.S. informed us you were feeling quite uneasy within the armor."

Tony didn't see how this guy being here was going to fix that.

_"This is Rhodes!"_ Rhodey's voice suddenly shouted into the comms. _"We just exited the west stairwell onto the ninth floor. HYDRA is gunning for us."_ In the background, there were shots, and Pepper's startled scream followed.

Tony felt something inside him seize up, like a fist around his organs.

_"We're coming,"_ Rogers replied.

Tony had left Natasha pretty much at the top of the building, and even if they were already coming down, it was going to take a while. Clint and Bruce didn't reply in a similar fashion, which most likely meant they weren't nearby, either.

_"Maybe they're just trying to get clear of the building before we round up the rest of them?"_ Natasha mused. She was definitely running.

_"They're definitely chasing us!"_ Rhodey replied, with more audible sounds of shots being fired.

_"They didn't get to Tony, so maybe they're trying to get Tony to come to them,"_ Clint offered. _"Is he still airborne?"_

"Aye," Thor reported.

_"Keep him there,"_ Rogers ordered.

Tony clenched his jaw.

_"Whatever you're about to do, do it quick,"_ Rhodey demanded. Pepper yelled, and there was a sound of something heavy and metallic crashing, like a filing cabinet, or something similar.

"I need to help them," Tony said in a whisper. Sure, he didn't know _this_ Rhodey, but he knew _his_ Rhodey, and he wouldn't have left him in trouble if he could help it. Also, Pepper had been nice to him, and just because he couldn't remember how much she meant to him…

He felt sweat on his skin, a different kind of anxiety blooming inside him.

_"It is best you stay out of harm's way, sir,"_ J.A.R.V.I.S. replied.

"But they're being chased by HYDRA because of me," Tony argued. "What if they get hurt? Become hostages? Or get killed?"

In the background, through an open communication line, Tony could hear banging. Maybe Rhodey had barricaded them somewhere, but it didn't sound good.

Tony took a breath, feeling a stab of desperate anger and fear. For an instant, he saw a flash of flames and smelled fumes from burning oil. She was falling – Pepper was falling.

_"Tony!"_

He had no idea whether he heard it then and there, or if it was his imagination, or a forgotten memory. His body tensed, then his fingers twitched, and the screen before his eyes changed. He was diving down before he knew how, accelerating.

"Ninth floor," he murmured, perspiration in his eyes.

He blinked, inhaled, and fleetingly grasped what he was doing, but was unable to stop it. His body seemed to know what it was doing.

_"Sir, please stop,"_ J.A.R.V.I.S. said, not sounding alarmed but certainly not calm, either. Did that mean the AI was not in control of the armor anymore?

The screen, however, was pinpointing the ninth floor of the building for him, painting it orange in the virtual wire frame placed over the actual building's outline.

_"Stark!"_ Thor bellowed at him through the comm. Tony had no idea if the other was following him, but he was fast approaching the building.

For a moment he feared he might literally crash into the side of the high rise, but his body aligned itself just slightly, flaps opening, slowing him down marginally before he dove through the window and into the office space on the other side. He went straight through a column, then another, barely even feeling it, then red targets were painted on his screen as he spotted the HYDRA men.

His hands flew forward, flaps fully deployed, and the way his fingers twitched, just slightly, firing a brilliant beam of light and power, felt as natural as breathing.

* * *

They hadn't heard it in their communication devices, but when J.A.R.V.I.S. had stated Tony was within the armor and exiting the building, Thor had been tasked with following him. After all, Tony's virtual assistant had implied his creator was less than thrilled about the situation, and might benefit from a calming influence.

Not long after Thor reached him in the sky, however, Iron Man changed course, diving down towards the building. It was unexpected, an unwise plan, and Thor did not understand why J.A.R.V.I.S. would make such a drastic change.

_"Thor, my control of the armor has been overruled,"_ the AI informed him through the earpiece.

"By whom?" Thor asked, taking off after Iron Man. Was it HYDRA?

_"Mr. Stark,"_ J.A.R.V.I.S. replied. _"I am not certain he knows what he is doing – his vital signs suggest he is distressed and possibly on the verge of an anxiety attack."_

Thor could see his flight path, however, which was controlled, aiming straight for the building they had both just left. Either it was dumb luck, or Tony knew exactly what he was doing.

Flying after him, Thor tried to get his attention, but got no reply. Was the distress of his loved one finally stirring something in the man's memories? Thor's heart jumped at the chance, because ever since Tony no longer remembered who he was, matters had ground to a halt in their search for HYDRA.

Despite having grown much since his first trip to Earth, Thor was still not known for his patience.

He saw Iron Man smashing in through a window, and it could well coincide with the location his friend Rhodes had last informed them of. It was looking more and more likely Tony was responding to that news, and Thor swooped in after him, landing on his feet amongst shattered pieces of glass, surveying the area.

Before he could see it, he heard the battle, rushing towards it. A battle cry was ready on his lips when he turned a corner and found Iron Man standing there, his weapons of choice still glowing, emitting a faint smoke in the gloom left by shattered ceiling lights. HYDRA agents lay lifeless around him, five of them altogether.

Iron Man stood still, and it was impossible to tell what was happening within the armor. Thor had seen him kill many an enemy in their time fighting side by side, but regardless of how lethal his invention was, Tony rarely used it to its full destructive capacity.

"Stark?" Thor questioned, walking over to him, shoving one body aside with his boot. There was some blood on the floor and walls around them, but it had clearly not been a drawn-out affair. There was a faint odor of burning flesh, which stirred many memories in Thor's mind of the brutal battles of his youth.

A door opened a few feet away from them, Rhodes emerging slowly, looking around.

"Is it over?" Pepper's voice asked from behind him, shaky.

"Looks like," the man who was also War Machine replied, carefully opening the door further, surveying the destruction. "Thanks for the assist. My gun wasn't much use against what these guys were packing." He looked at Iron Man, waiting for a comeback. "J.A.R.V.I.S.?" he called out.

There was no immediate reply, and Thor stepped further towards his teammate. "Stark, are you well?" he asked.

Behind Rhodes, Pepper stepped out of what seemed like a closet of office supplies, gasping at the sight of the bodies. In the semi-darkness Tony's armor was the steadiest source of light, as well as a few lights flickering a bit further away. Pepper took a couple steps, then seemed to notice a particularly large blood stain on the carpet and sidestepped quickly, steadying herself on Rhodes' shoulder.

"Tony?" she called out, and that seemed to snap him out of whatever had occupied his mind.

The man seemed to jerk within the armor, then made a tiny gesture and the armor opened, letting him step out.

Tony took a breath, shaky and wide-eyed, then jumped back when his foot hit a body.

_"Sir?"_ J.A.R.V.I.S. prompted.

"I… blacked out for a minute," Tony murmured, looking around.

"It's okay," Rhodes told him. "We're fine. I heard you fly in and then it was over. Whoever is renting this floor is definitely going to send you a sizeable bill, though," he added with a tense smile.

Tony looked away. "Add it to the list," he murmured, then ran an unsteady hand through his hair. His gaze seemed a bit lost, then he saw Pepper as if for the first time, blinking.

"I'm sure it was frightening, this whole attack," Pepper said slowly, moving around Rhodes – careful not to step into anything, or on anyone. "How about we go back upstairs, to the others, and make sure there's no more threats?"

Thor had almost believed, for a second, that perhaps Tony had recovered his memories, yet Pepper spoke to him as if she thought he did not, in fact, remember any of them. Could it have been luck that he took control of the armor, ingrained into his body with years of repetition? Pepper knew him better than Thor did, so he did not question her judgment.

Tony shifted restlessly, rubbing a hand across his eyes. "Ugh, my head is killing me," he stated, then blinked rapidly a few times. "J.A.R.V.I.S., implement Blast Door Protocol."

_"Sir, there are still severe glitches in the system,"_ the AI replied through the armors' speakers.

"It was designed to work as long as there's something to run the message on," Tony said a bit impatiently. "If the network is even partially functional, it will seal the building."

There was a brief silence, then Thor heard a few noticeable thudding noises coming from somewhere further off in the office space. The air flow changed slightly.

_"Bruce? I hope that was you who just slammed a door in our faces,"_ the Widow's voice came over the comm.

_"Nope,"_ Banner replied, _"but we've reached at least one of the locations where HYDRA has a scrambler attached to the Tower's wiring. It will take me a while to untangle it and extract it safely."_

"They have found some kind of scrambling device," Thor informed Tony, who clearly wasn't wearing a communications device.

Tony blinked. "Who?"

"Banner and Barton."

"Tell Banner to just pull it out. I'll have to go through all of the wirings anyway," Tony stated.

Thor relayed the orders, and a silence followed. He realized everyone was staring at Tony.

"Are you okay, man?" Rhodes asked finally.

"Yeah," Tony shrugged. "I mean, it feels a bit like I've been on a bender for a week, minus a certain level of grossness, but my memory is a bit blurry and my head has been better." He looked at the floor again. "Am I supposed to know why there are HYDRA goons staining my carpet?"

Thor grinned. "You are back!" he exclaimed, overjoyed. He lifted his arms in celebration, and suddenly felt Mjolnir hit the ceiling, sinking into the paneling above. Tony followed it with his gaze, and Thor guiltily pulled his weapon back – which ended up bringing down the entire ceiling panel with it. He shook it off to the side, annoyed.

_"Who's back?"_ the Captain asked.

"Stark," Thor informed him. "He is himself again."

_"Seriously?!"_ Banner asked. _"What happened?"_

"He flew in to save Lady Pepper and Rhodes, and now he is back to normal."

Tony was frowning, as was Rhodes.

"If I had my armor, I wouldn't have needed saving," Rhodes muttered.

_"The Tower is secured. We are, at present time, unable to determine if hostiles still remain within the building,"_ J.A.R.V.I.S. cut in. _"Welcome back, sir."_

"Yeah, about that," Tony turned to his armor. "You're going to give me a rundown of what's been happening just as soon as we have this HYDRA infestation under control. There are some blanks I need filled."

"What's the last thing you remember?" Rhodes asked.

"Not sure," Tony admitted, looking again at the destruction surrounding them. "I barely remember this. I mean, I do, but I don't… It's out of focus, messy. Are you sure I haven't been drugged?" Tony asked, glancing at the armor.

_"You have not, sir."_

Tony didn't seem like he believed it, and considering how jarring the previous day had been for all of them, who could blame him?

_"Any idea when this lockdown ends?"_ Natasha asked. _"Cap and I are trapped between two blast doors, and he's starting to look a little antsy."_

Thor opened his mouth to ask Tony if there was anything to be done about it that didn't require brute force.

_"I believe we are 'on it', Agent Romanoff. Please stay where you are,"_ J.A.R.V.I.S. replied instead.

Rhodey chuckled, clapping Tony on the back. "Time to go to work."

Tony just hummed, still looking somewhat disoriented, but Thor was confident it would pass.

* * *

He had showered and changed after the Tower protocols were no longer crashing one after another, and Stark Industries teams were surveying the damage. There was a lot Tony was going to be doing himself, but he had decided he could leave some of the simpler tasks to people who were fully equipped to handle it.

The headache had eased a little bit, but he was still easily disoriented and kept getting distracted by things he saw and didn't remember how they ended up like that. It was like he had been dreaming, only he could remember snippets of it, then had a serious case of déjà vu at repeated intervals.

Bruce had wanted to check him over, Pepper had demanded for him to see a doctor – preferably in a hospital – and Tony had acquiesced to his fellow scientist to do the deed. He didn't need any runaway headlines telling the world about _'Tony Stark's Great Amnesia Adventure'_.

His lab was a mess, but not as much as the hallways outside it. A dozen HYDRA bodies lay in the makeshift morgue at the basement. They were still trying to figure out which branch of government would deal with those.

"No useful intel on the bodies," Natasha reported as she and Rhodey came back up to join the others.

Bruce had just finished his scans and was checking Tony's vitals – even demanding to take a blood sample. They were in Tony's workshop because he wanted to go back to work as soon as possible.

"We swept the entire building, four times, and unless some of them escaped, that's all of them," Clint added. Steve didn't look too happy about that – and neither did Clint, because he had been satisfied after the second check, but Cap had insisted they make sure none of them were left hiding.

The Tower had a lot of ground to cover, so Tony had some sympathy for the archer. He had said that once the security system was back online, they could just scan the building, but that hadn't been enough for Steve.

Not that Tony wasn't a little bit paranoid, seeing as the HYDRA squad had managed to infiltrate the building without triggering an alarm before it was too late. There was going to be a serious security overhaul once Tony was feeling a bit more like himself.

Pepper was standing near him, anxiously waiting for results Tony knew they wouldn't be getting for several hours. "Were you worried?" he asked her. By now he had learned that he'd forgotten a huge chunk of his life had ever existed, and in the back of his mind, he still felt echoes of the existential crisis he must have been going through.

"You left everyone in quite the pickle," she replied softly, moving out of the way as You came over with a tall glass of green smoothie of unknown ingredients in his grasp. Tony accepted it with a smile, sipping it slowly, finding it edible. "Of course, if you had stayed that way, maybe I could have trained you to be a more responsible adult," she added, and Tony had to check her expression to see whether she was joking or not. She probably was.

"That's cruel," he replied. "Here I thought you loved me for my quirkiness."

She shook her head, smiling a bit, then leaned in to kiss him softly.

"Was it weird?" he whispered before she had entirely pulled back.

"Very. You called me 'ma'am'."

Tony cringed and looked at Rhodey. "What about you?"

"I think you knew it was me, but couldn't quite explain why I was so much older than what you remembered," Rhodey said honestly. "Be glad this didn't take any longer than it did, because if you'd had time to do some shaving…"

Tony touched his signature beard which he had been sporting for a good long while – but not long enough for his amnesiac self to be familiar with.

"Do you remember anything about the mission yet?" Natasha asked. She had already been asking him about it, and Tony was still drawing a blank.

"No," Tony replied. "I mean, I'm pretty sure we were going after a HYDRA base…"

Her look of disappointment didn't go unnoticed by anyone, least of all Tony.

"It might come back to him later," Bruce tried to reassure her, though he hadn't been pushing Tony to remember any specifics when he tried to figure out how intact his memory was after this ordeal.

"Either it comes back, or we'll figure it out," Steve decided with some finality in his words. Maybe he could see Natasha's continued pressuring wasn't putting Tony in a better mood.

"HYDRA attacked us right after our last mission," she said sharply. "They were coming after Tony, specifically. Whatever he saw in their files, they wanted to make sure it didn't get out."

"How did they know he hadn't told any of us?" Clint questioned her. "No one else knew Tony's memory was gone. Maybe they were just extra fed up with him."

She raised an eyebrow at him, pursing her lips, but didn't argue again. After one more look at Tony, she turned and walked out, muttering something about taking a shower and calling it a day.

"J.A.R.V.I.S., make sure she doesn't sneak into my room at night and try to probe my memory with some questionable spy tricks," Tony told his AI.

"She's just frustrated," Clint defended his friend. "She keeps thinking she should have been the one to go in to extract the information."

"And when they tried to blow her up, there would have been no armor to save her from it," Tony retorted. He didn't remember any of that, but he had been told what had happened. J.A.R.V.I.S. even had a shoddy recording. Sadly, that recording did not contain more than a tiny glimpse of the screen Tony had been looking at. There was no useful intelligence they could extract from that.

No one bothered telling him how differently things may have played out if Natasha had been the one to go in, but then, Tony's point wasn't completely invalid.

"There are some things I need to check up on," Pepper told him. "Will you be okay?"

"Yeah," Tony nodded. "I'll be down here for a bit, make sure things are running smoothly, then probably go and take a nap. There are a lot of repairs that need to be done."

"Don't work too hard," she told him, though it had never stopped him before. She leaned in to kiss his forehead, fingers briefly caressing the back of his head, then she walked out.

There had been some injuries, though miraculously no one had gotten hurt by HYDRA; it had been the evacuation that had caused a few stumbles and bruises.

"Come find me after your nap," Bruce told him, and he and the other Avengers left. The fight hadn't been as intense as usual, but all of them would most likely enjoy a little down time.

The door didn't close all the way, having sustained some damage, and Tony sighed, adding it to the list he had been compiling in his head. It was a long one.

He sipped the smoothie, watching the bots moving through the rubble, sorting it out into piles. Tony would want to personally make sure it was correctly disposed of, but for now he left them to it.

Every now and then the bots would rise from their task, looking at him. Maybe they were expecting new instructions. Or maybe, just maybe, it was to make sure he was there.

_"Sir."_

"Yeah, J?"

_"How are you feeling?"_

Tony wasn't sure why the AI was asking. J.A.R.V.I.S. had seen Bruce's results, and was processing the ones that took a bit more time. He would know the answer to that before Tony did. "Weird," Tony admitted. "I'm sure it will pass." It was like someone had stirred his mind with a spoon, and things were still settling back into their usual places. He had these moments of uncertainty, irrational and unexpected, and he kept seeking out reflective surfaces to check himself out, to ground himself. "Were you worried?" he asked then.

_"Of course. I should have prevented it from happening,"_ J.A.R.V.I.S. replied.

"Next time, you'll do better," Tony said.

_"You sound confident about that. Why?"_

"Because that's what I always do. I mess up, and I learn from it." Tony finished the smoothie, then got up from his seat and took the glass over to the sink. Deciding work could wait a little longer, he headed for the door, letting his hand slide along the body of the bot closest to him. "Nap time. Don't break anything else while I'm gone," he told the bots and his AI, heading up to his bedroom.

Up there nothing had changed, though maybe someone had been there since the last time Tony remembered being in his quarters at the Tower.

He undressed to go to bed, adjusted the lighting of the room from a panel in the wall, then sat down on the edge of the mattress. Instead of lying down, he reached to open a bedside drawer, pulling out an item that lay at the bottom of it. He held it in his hands, looking at it, then inhaled sharply and placed it on the nightstand.

It was rare for Tony to have pictures of him and his family on display in his personal spaces, especially since he remembered how much he hadn't wanted to be there when said picture was taken. But seeing the faces of his mother and father felt fitting at this time, and Tony lay down, deciding not to investigate the _why_ any further.

He probably wouldn't remember even if he tried, and he was fine with that.

**The End**


End file.
